When and how to introduce bed time story

[mrsflux]

Ds is nearly one and I want to introduce a story at bed time.
Current bedtime routine is bath milk bed.
Where would you slot in story?
How long a story do you do?

Actually just what do you do would be good!

After the milk in bed. Unless she falls asleep straight after milk in which case before or during milk.

Sorry didn't say what we do. Mine have a bath, drink of milk, clean teeth then in bed to read story.

it took until about 2 for this routine to become embedded - this was because my daughter used to feed and fall asleep! So I just read to her during the day or at other times, but i had the routine of bath, feed, bed.
Now that there is no boob to fall asleep on, i read in bed, after bath
just go with the flow, it took my daughter awhile to "get" stories, now we read at least two, or the same book 3 times, depending on what she wants! It varies, and I of course try to put the books i like within her reach!
I would imagine you will spend 10 - 20 minutes ... as they get older they will try to negotiate more!

My dd is 10 months and we do supper, pyjamas, teeth, story, bed. They're never too young for bedtime stories! I think I would be tempted to ditch the milk as well - last thing in mouth should be toothbrush!

I introduced a bedtime story when we started putting DS2 in his cot (rather than letting him fall asleep downstairs with us ) so I think that was about 4 months old. His routine hasn't changed since then even though he is now 16 months old so we do:

Bath
Milk downstairs (whilst his big bro watches telly )
Back upstairs onto our bed, put him in his grobag and read him a story on our bed
Put him in his cot in his own room

As for length, DS2 is not that keen on actually listening to stories as he would much rather play with the books so they are very short (think 'Thats not my.....' kind of length/type) whereas DS1 loved sitting and listening to books constantly from a very early age so by 1, he was having proper story books, such as basic Thomas ones - maybe 8 -10 pages with pictures so I guess it depends on your DS.

The sooner you start the better.

Sorry should have added that teeth are cleaned once he is on our bed in his grobag

It's never to early to start. As your DS is still having a bottle you can read to him whilst he drinks it.

started with ours when they were really tiny with their milk, it's a lovely way to wind down

We've done some kind of bedtime story since DS was a few months old - he's now 17 months and really loves it, will choose a book himself and come to sit with us with a big smile.

We do:

Tea
In The Night Garden
Into bedroom
Change nappy
Change into pyjamas
Brush teeth
Read book
Into bed

He doesn't have a bath at night as we don't have a bath, so he has morning showers instead.

He doesn't mind longer stories (in the day he wants the Gruffalo over and over and over again), but DH and I prefer fairly short ones at night time. Sometimes he objects though and wants us to go back to the beginning and read it again!

Started at about 12 weeks with ds1 in the hope that some sort of bedtime routine would encourage him to sleep better. From day 2 with ds2 because he just tagged along to ds1's bedtime routine.

I'd do milk with his supper rather than at bedtime and do the stories after his bath.

Think with milk might be best way. He loves books during the day- well turning pages and chewing. Think he'll just get too wide awake again if i try it in bed. Also were still working on putting him down to sleep awake.

For us it was always "teeth clean, story, bed". We always had story sitting together (but we started when the children were wayyy young, 4 months old maybe and it was an opportunity for a cuddle and a wind-down, plus it would have been hard to do the book throught the bars of the cot!) I sooo remember nodding off over the book all the time!

we did books from 12 wks with ds1, earlier with ds2 and ds3 as they had listen.
we do bath, milk, book, bed
rule is 2 books, for 1yr old go for short simple stories, ds3 is 9 months and likes night night baby and baby boo and I like no matter what but to be honest use anything that has nice pictures

I did it from about 6 months, when they joined the library-in bed when everything else done.

i did it with both children at 1. We do bath, tv (althought DS2 won't watch it), then milk and story individually in their room.

My dc's had stories from 6 weeks . Only because ds was 6 weeks old at his first xmas and I'd bought some nice baby books for me to read to him. And I started dd at the same age so she wasn't left out. And I bet they don't learn to read any sooner than other children!

We do stories straight before lights out. They're 3 + 1 now and have one or two short stories or a long one each. TBH its the only part of being a mum that never goes wrong and I don't end up stressed. My idea of heaven is hunting down new kids books for me to enjoy .

My DS, now 2.5 years, was read a story from a few months old. He's look at the pictures and we'd read to him while he had his milk. Then as he got older they became picture books with things he could point to, from around 1 year it has been The Gruffalo, and anything else by Julia Donaldson. He goes through phases of reading the same book every night for a few weeks then suddenly changes.
At the moment we have tea, then watch Night Garden, then bath, yogurt, teeth, 2 books then he sings a song to us and we sing a song to him, usually Twinkle Twinkle and Old Mcdonald.
Very routine driven but I think thats why he has always settled so well at night