Bathtime/Bedtime routines-what do you do?

[honeybunny]

I have a dilemma.
I'm loosely following gf (her again) routines with my kiddies. ds1 is nearly 20mo and ds2 is just 10weeks. My question is for all those who are on their own at this time of day. How do you juggle it?
We go up for bathtime at around 6ish. Both boys get in the bath together. I quickly clean up ds2 and dry/cream/massage/dress etc by the 6.15pm deadline whilst leaving ds1 to splash about. I give ds2 the first breast, keeping an eye on ds1. He then gets out in between ds2 finishing boob1 before moving onto boob2. Then ds1 is encouraged to play with his toys or books (in his bedroom) while I finish the feed in a quiet corner of his room. At 7ish when ds2 has largely finished, he gets plonked in bed with his dreamshow lullaby thing and has to get on with settling himself while I read and play with ds1 back in his bedroom until his bedtime of 7.15-7.30ish.
Anyone got any better suggestions? It feels like a huge juggling act at the moment, and depends wholey on everyone being in a good, compliant mood, something that doesn't happen on a daily basis unfortunately! If things are going badly, the whole thing becomes one huge stress that upsets all of us.

Prompted to reply to this by something I have just heard on the TV.

Do you really need to give them a bath every night? Maybe the eldest, depending on how rough and tumble he is and therefore how dirty he gets. But I found that at 10 wks old they don?t really get all that dirty (excepting of course the inevitable nappy/sick incidents). I used to sit ds2 on my knee for a quick all over flannel wash before feed and bed whilst ds1 played quietly. Ds1 then stands at the bathroom basin for a top-to-toe wash whilst ds2 is settling himself to sleep. Doesn't take any longer and I only have to concentrate on 1 at a time.

The article I just heard on the news says that new research apparently concludes that too much bathing of young children can encourage skin problems such as eczema.

Chop and change. We stopped giving dd her baths at night as she was tired anyway and would scream the place down, so she has her baths in the morning. This means that evenings are less stressed. Does your partner not help out? Could he not keep ds1 occupied whilst you feed ds2? Some dads like to have a 'role' to play in their kids routines, so you could make bathtime your partner's role.

I also changed dd's routine to 8-8. So I get a lie-in the mornings and dh gets to see her a bit more often in the evenings, again it just means you can take your time in the evenings, everything isn't so rushed.

Sorry I can't help more.

I had thought of just not bathing ds2, but he's quite grizzly at this time of day, gagging for his feed, and is only truely happy once he's in the bath!! A quiet, smiley 5-10 mins then follows, with a frantic 5min dress before boob. ds1 definitely needs a bath at the end of his day as he is usually filthy. Up to his elbows in mud from dawn to dust, often needing a quick shower down before napping at 1pm to avoid a mud slick in bed!!
Unfortunately Rhubarb, dh is unreliable in his home coming. Usually missing bath/bedtime altogether, otherwise, yes, no problem as he will "deal" with ds1 while I get on with ds2. No stress at all then! Bliss at the w/es!
ds1 is on a 8am to 7.15/30pm day, and vv contented with it, ds2 is currently following a 7-7routine, simply to allow for feeding at 7am before ds1 gets up, and a 2pm feed before ds1 wakes up from his lunchtime nap at 3pm. dh no help in the mornings either as he's usually gone by 6.45/7am. Thats what being married to a NHS consultant is like!! No fat cat going off to the golf course in this family!! Just work, work, work!

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I also put ds in front of TV while eating sometimes (is this a bad thing? Why...?), but usually only at lunch time. At night he tends to eat with us at the dinner table. I usually put him in the bath at about 7.00pm, have him in his pj's by about 7.20, then he sits with us in the living room and either watches one of his videos or reads a book with me. Then he's in bed by 8.00pm at the latest - I usually take him in there just before 8.00 and sing him a song or just play with him quietly for a few minutes. Then he sleeps through until around 7.30am.

We bath in the morning! Or at night! Or in the middle of the day! Or all three when we are having a painting day!
Personally if I am going to be at home alone with the kids at teatime/bedtime I forget the bath, but I never miss out the massage as they both realx to a short massage and dd helps with ds (she's 2+5 mos, he's 5 mos). Then its into pj's, all into bed (about 7.30) for a story/song/prayers and then I take ds away, give him his porridge and breastfeed then put him down between 8 and 8.30. I know it's not GF time wise but it works for us.
We also must watch story makers at 6.35 on cbeebies, so this is a good time for me to get ds ready while dd watches that - it is her very fave.
Luckily my dh usually manages to get home by 5.30, but not always. We don't bath every day if we dont need to, and sometimes the bath can be a big wind up for dd!

My dd loves to imagine, imagine, imagine a story too but why do they keep changing the presenters?

I've discovered over the last couple of days that I can keep ds1 in the bath for up to an hour if I give him the shower to play with, and lots of beakers and jugs to fill up. That way I can bf ds2 sitting beside the bath, making sure that there's no overflowing, and that the water temp stays consistent, for 45mins with no interuptions!! ds1 comes out a bit prune like, but is then happy to run around (starkers) while I settle ds2 in bed at 7pm. Then back upstairs again to dress and read with ds1. Lights out at around 7.15pm!! Its eased the stress a little!
Thanks for your ideas everyone!

I know PamT - I liked Milton Wordsworth best but he seems to have disappeared!

Do you recognise Milton?

He's The Cat in Red Dwarf (a little bit of trivia for you)

I've never watched Red Dwarf, its not my sort of thing. I'm more into soaps, medical/police dramas and fly on the wall stuff with the odd documentary here and there.

it was my dh who noticed that!! Red dwarf is great!.