Juggling getting two children to bed

[RosieIrene]

I have two dds - one 5 months and one 2.5 yrs and trying to get them both to bed is a nightmare. When I do my bath, story, nursing, bed routine with baby first, dd runs around, yells and makes a lot of noise so baby won't sleep and is distracted trying to watch her. Dd is scared to stay in her room alone so can't leave her to amuse herself. Tried getting her involved but she gets bored after a while. Any advice?

What about putting older one to bed first? That is what I did when my DD was a baby.

I have a 11mth old and a 3.1yr old and have always bathed them together. Then get DD out dry her on my knee and put her pjs on. Then get ds out while DD is in chair/now crawls around get him dry and pjs on. While I am putting DD to bed with her story DS plays on the landing with his cars or if he is very quiet he can sit on floor in her room while I read story. Then DD tends to settle and I go to DS and do his story etc.

When my children were that age, my daughter (the younger of hte 2) never went to sleep til about 10 pm so this was not an issue!

No advice but complete sympathy. I am still struggling with bedtimes with an 8 months old and a 2.5 yr old. I have given up bathing them during the week and use telly to keep the older one entertained whilst I put the youngest to bed. I feel really guilty because I have dropped stories alltogether.

I used to put my older DD to bed first, usually feeding one of the DTs at the same time. Alternatively, telly and dim lights whilst doing for the baby in the same room then popping out just long enough to put the baby into bed. I'm forever saying "no running about, its bedtime, no shouting, its bedtime, remember this is our quiet time...", repeat, repeat, repeat and you will benefit eventually.

I have ds aged 3.5 and dd aged 8 weeks. Both go upstairs about 6pm, bath together, pjs on together and at 6.30pm-ish I start reading stories on a double bed while I breastfeed dd. She'd happily feed for an hour and ds would listen to stories for ever. At about 6.50pm I send ds off to fet his toothbrush and paste, go to the loo and then we walk through to his room (often with dd still attached) and do ds' song and prayer.

I really needed to be able to do it all myself as dh is often out in the evenings. Thankfully ds is v biddable (generally! He was AWFUL tongiht!).

Does your dd1 like the bath? Could you leave her in while feeding and changing your dd2?

My routine was exactly the same as Tassis, word for word, but then it started to become more like yours RosieIrene when DD2 became more int in the story and everything else that was going on over my boob. So I started to put DD2 to bed a teeny bit earlier and leave DD1 on my bed watching cbeebies. The DD2 would be settled and I could concentrate on DD1 and give them both soe nice calm mummy tie before bed.
Not always easy. I'm always on my own for the bedtime routine and I've found it the most challenging aspect to having 2 children so far.

I used to only have to do them on my own occasionally. But I would bath them together. Get DD out first and dry/dressed. Then get DS out dry/dressed/teeth. Then read to DS while breastfeeding DD, tuck DS up and then continue feeding DD. When DD got older this swapped round.

At that age I used to put oldest to bed first. Youngest used to be up till quite late in evening feeding so not an issue. he would gurgle in cot while I put her to bed or lie in floor in her room as I read story...

Then would bf him and from what I can remember he would be in bed by 8-9-10 o'clock.

i have a 13 month old and a 2.9 year old - bedtime has got easier in the last few months if that is any consolation to you.

I bath both of them together, pyjamas and then downstairs for the end of CBeebies... i then take the youngest back upstairs with her milk, feed her in the bedroom, read her a story and put her to bed. DD1 is happy watching CBeebies downstairs with her milk. I then go back downstairs, read DD1 a book, then when i know DD2 is asleep we go upstairs, brush teeth then bed. No stories or messing about upstairs - all very businesslike! Not ideal, but it does seem to work.

i find juggling not conducive to sleep

much the same as twickersmum. Have always had to get them both to bed on my own so this is my routine - involves TV but - whatever gets you through!
DS1 (3.7) and ds2 (20mo) both have bath together. dS2 out first, PJs on, allowed to play whilst I get ds1 out of bath. Ds1 loves his 'me time' alone in the bath whilst I'm dressing ds2 in there. Both have a play whilst I go downstairs to get milk for both of them. Ds1 allowed to watch TV on our bed whilst I give ds2 story and milk, then ds1 is allowed to watch to the end of whichever programme is on before going in his room for stories and bed.

Much easier now they are a bit older.
A year ago ds1 was much like your dd1, wouldn't stay in his room to amuse himself and would come in and disrupt ds2's bedtime, thats why I resorted to the TV. No guilt about it - they don't watch a lot during the day. It's a godsend when you're trying to do the whole bedtime routine on your own