Bedtime Stories

[MadameChinLegs]

When (if) did you start reading your DC a bedtime story?
How do you build it into their routine?
What is your favourite story?

I have a love of books and always did as a child. I'm finding it hard to find a time when DD may be 'condusive' (sp?) to sitting listening to a story near bedtime as before the bath she's tired and hungry and after the bath she's feeding then after that is too sleep so goes to bed.

She's 4 1/2 mo.
Thanks

I think we started around 16 months with our LO. Health visitor suggested it as part of a routine. Hes 22 months now and when he goes to pick a book it is always, without fail Tabby Mctat :)

We never read stories but made them up instead. They usually involved a character with DS's name who could be quite heroic and, because they were invented, could be as short or as long as the time allowed :)

We started around 4 months. Of course they fall asleep or get distracted but we've used the story to break the association between feeding and sleep (I'd breastfeed and she'd fall to sleep)

So it goes, bath, breastfeed (whilst in dressing gown as she cant wait!), story, changed in to pjs, story, cot, story.

Sometimes it's only one story and she's sleepy so we put her down, other times it's 4 when she refuses to go to sleep and I'm reading the same story for the 3rd time

Best to get rhyming ones IME

Dd is 9 months now and already has her favorite stories:

Peepo
Max & Millie
Stripy Horse

We have bath, teeth, stories in bed and sleep. When they were smaller it was teeth, bf and stories then milk in cup with stories downstairs, teeth, bed with last story to get over the horror of tooth brushing!

I can't remember what age we started with ds1, the younger ones of course just joined in so had it from birth.

ds1 is 5 and loves having separate stories from his sister so he can have Roald Dahl books, Robin Hood stories and so on but he like fireman sam, postman pat, thomas the tank and julia donaldson books too.

dd is 3 and also likes thomas, fireman sam, julia donaldson and the younger roald dahls.

Not until DD was 22mo and went into a proper bed. We had lots of books in the day before then though.

I too successfully introduced a story between bf and bed, unlatching dd before she fell asleep. She was very keen on books, though, so maybe easier for her to make the effort to listen. I can't remember when, maybe when she could sit up, around 6 months?

Each Peach Pear Plum, Orange Pear Apple Bear, Peepo all popular.

DH started to read to DD when she was in the womb during my last 2 weeks of pregnancy, she would kick like mad ( though she may have been saying shut up. :) )
He would read the Miffy books & once she was born we would read one page a night.
As DD got older we moved on to the Mog the Cat books by Judith Kerr, anything by Julia Donaldson, Mr Men & Little Misses plus many other books.

4.5 months?

Not at bedtime that early! I don't think DS even had a bedtime until he was about one though so I may be weird... Lots of stories during the day, of course.

Started doing bedtime stories as a ritual when I moved him out of my bed into his own. He was about 2.

DH has read a bedtime story properly (as opposed to making stuff up) since about 10 months I think. DS at 20 months is expressing a definite preference for story books now as opposed to lift flap/thats not my.../peekaboo ones. If daddy doesn't get The Gruffalo's Child out fast enough he complains!

From birth I think! Definitely started once we got into the 'bedtime ritual' thing at about 4 months: bath/milk/story/bed. The story bit is migrating from a 'story in the living room' to 'story in bed' now that DD is 2 though.

Think we transitioned from singing to reading at bedtime at about 6 months? Can't remember exactly but around when she was sitting up on my lap after a feed and then into the cot.
Lots of books during the daytime here too before that. And now it's books all the time. We have cut down to 3 stories before bed (or I would be there all night!!) now she's 2.8.

First book from around 4 or 6 months,
I wrote to the zoo to send me a pet and they sent me
A .......
Book :)

At that age I just made sure I read to DD loads in the day. I think she was nearer to 12mo when she want tired enough to have a story after her bath and before her bottle.

Favourites include peepo, guess how much I love you, songs and rhymes from in the night garden, ten busy bees and winnie the pooh,
That's not my...

DS is 9mo and we've been doing a story since 6mo when he went into the big cot in his own room.

Only Snuggle Bunny will do, but I think that has more to do with the puppet than the story - he likes nothing better than the bits where he gets to chew on the bunny ears .

Bed time is a routine of bath-pyjamas-bottle-story-sleep (usually).

We've always read alot to DD (2) but I think at that age it was in the day. I seem to remember trying bed time story and she just got cross. Gradually she became book obsessed, so she now has a story whilst she drinks her bedtime beaker of milk (after bath and before cleaning teeth), and then if she asks fior another one, she can have one lying down in her cot too (and sometimes we will read one when she is sitting in the bath if she requests it). This is a fairly new routine though - it's been stories in day until very recently (and still is alongside bedtime).

She loves loads of books, but I think the first ones she loved were the 'Peekaboo' books (DK), some of the Julia Donaldsons like gruffalo and Monkey Puzzle, Dear Zoo, Very Hungry Caterpilklar and so many more. Lift the flap and textured ones definitely good for early story time, but she would listen to a short 'proper' story quite early too.

Bout 6 months I think - starting with AA Milne poems from memory in the dark.

Bout 6 months I think - starting with AA Milne poems from memory in the dark.

From about 10 weeks when he started having a more regular 'bedtime'. I used to read to him while BFing. We like He likes The Gruffalo and Room on the Broom (he loves the dragon because i put a scary voice on).

Oh and when he got past 1yo he loved the 'interactive' books where you lift the flaps to find things - Fox's Socks is another favourite - and textured books.

This is probably taking it too far but at that age because DS1 was having bedtime bottle in his room with not much light and I couldn't see a book I memorised a few, like the gruffalo, to tell him while he had his bottle. When he was about 10 months we moved the story to being downstairs when he would happily wait for a bottle a little longer.

Dilysprice, I'm feeling better it's not just me!