Bedtime routines for 16 month old

[Holly66]

Hi everyone,

Just looking for some advice for my DS?s bedtime routine. He has always been quite good at bedtimes but just recently we are going through a nightmare patch. His routine is:

6:00: bath, massage, PJs, I sing songs whilst getting him into his PJs.
6:30: Sat on my lap watching In The Night Garden (I don?t like having TV as part of our routine but my mum started it, we are living with her at the moment).
6:50: Quiet reading.
7:00 Bottle in his darkened bedroom then in sleeping bag and put in cot awake.

The problem is he taking a long time to go to sleep and he is now waking in the night for 2 hrs at a time and I?m wondering if this is because he is un-settled at bedtime.

I think the TV is not helping but he gets so excited during his bath that he needs some wind down time afterwards but he gets bored if I try to read to him for a long time.

What is your routine like? Any tips or advice much appreciated!

Thank you.

massage? we don't do that!

Dinner, bath, books, bed.

I think you are doing everything right. Is he getting any more teeth? Don't they have some molars about this time?

Our routine:

After dinner lots of energy burning, running, playing ball or a kind of game of 'tag', jumping, spinning etc for 30/45 minutes. In the Night Garden then quiet play for short while before bath at 7.30.
20 mins in bath, (5 of which while the water drains).
Drying, and into pjs. Book with lamplight in dc's room. Then bottle in darkened room, and bed, (around 8pm)
Dc gets up around 7/7.30am. Only normally gets up in the night if there's actually something wrong.

Maybe swap around bath and tv?

Hope some of this helps, even if it's just a tiny bit.

Thank you so much for your advice Nagoo and Jean. The massage is more me trying to rub cream into him whilst he toddles round the bathroom making a mess! Bless him!

He is teething or at least I think he must be as 3 out of the 4 back molars are through so i'm thinking the 4th one must be on its way. But when he wakes in the night he isn't distressed he just talks to himself for 2hrs, it is so annoying!

I think I will try swapping the TV and bath. I'm also thinking about giving him a bedtime snack about 30 mins before he goes in his cot. He is refusing most of his bottle but then wants it 10 mins later so I might try giving half of his milk before the TV and then the rest in his room.

Honestly he would start waking and being difficult the same week I find out i'm expecting baby number 2 and am suffering from major tiredness and sickness, typical!

Congratulations on dc2! Sorry to hear you're getting all the crappy symptoms!
I do dc's dinner around 6/6.15pm. Snack around mid/late-afternoon to keep sugar levels up.
I hope the teething, new pregnancy, and routine adjusting all go well!!

does he have much of a daytime nap? too long or too late a nap can affect my little one's bedtime, he's good on a hour or less nap sometime around 12.30 straight after lunch, if we let a nap happen any later or longer it takes him hours to go off at 7 bedtime (no matter how energetic we've been! ) sometimes toddlers who are having 2 naps or 1 very long day nap are trying to drop some of it thats the only reason I ask... :) mine is 2 now and goes off like a light at 7 if he's only had a small or no nap (I know, argh) Our bedtime routine goes generally: dinner 5.30 (takes him about 30mins to eat), energetic playtime, bath, night garden or waybaloo (he usually hasn't watched telly since early morning by this point so I don't mind it), storytime, bed 7pm awake lights out straight away, usually goes straight off (well, often spends 5mins talking to teddy!) and sleeps till 7, 7.30a.m.

My dd is 17m, we have dinner at 1600/1630ish. Playtime with dadddy when he's home from work 1630/1700ish bath at 1730-1800ish. Drinks her bottle with mummy while watching bedtime hour, then story. In cot in dark wide awake, never hear a peep and haven't since she was about three months old!! Up at 0700/0730ish!!

She also sleeps approx two hours in the day usually late morning or early afternoon.

Hi, mine is also 16 months and his routine is bath, bottle downstairs with a book then bed, I have the TV on for a bit before this, but turn it off for a while before bathtime. Could be his teeth, when mine got his 4 sharp teeth (forgotten what they're called), everything changed, from what/how much he ate and drank and all his sleeping....as soon as they came through, everything changed again! Good luck x

Hiya
my 16.5 month old watches In the Night Garden, upstairs at 7, plays while I run a bath, etc, stories, bath, pjs, quiet bottle in room then bed at 7.30. I agree that it's less likely to be routine that is causing a problem, more likely too much daytime sleep, especially if waking during the night too. DD has no more than an hour during the day and we have worked this out through trial and error.... if she had a 2 hour nap we would never get her to sleep at night and she would start waking earlier in the morning too. HTH

I would limit daytime naps to 1 HR and see how that goes.