Bedtime routine baby and toddler

[lulu12345]

I‘d like to get into a better bedtime routine with my nearly-3 y/o and 4 month old. Most nights I’ve been able to just focus on the baby and DH or MIL has bathed my toddler but I need to get into a decent routine of doing the 2 of them together now. It has always seemed too difficult before now to do both together as toddler gets excited and needs a lot of cajoling to cooperate with bath, and obviously baby is still too young to sit up on her own, and is prone to crying if put down for more than 2 minutes... Please could you share any tips as to how to make this work?

Will baby go in a bouncy chair? I would get the bath ready and then put the baby in the bouncy chair next to the bath, bathe the toddler, all the while going "look how the baby is looking at you, s/he loves to see such a big kid getting washed". Show him how you rinse your hair, squeak the duck for him etc etc. Then out of the bath and onto a towel right in the bathroom, then night nappy and PJs with teeth and everything before opening the door. Then toddler gets the special toy/book/ipad to play with either in the bathroom or in the hall right outside while I bathed the baby, straight into night nappy and pjs. (that toy or book doesnt get played with at any other time of day, so it retains its appeal)

Another technique for calming down a crazy bathtime is a bath story. Read page one and two, then wash toes, read page 3 and 4 then wash tummy etc etc

After bath we stayed upstairs and read a couple more stories with lots of showing the baby the pictures - baby in bouncy chair now moved to toddlers bedroom - then night night toddler and off to baby's room for last feed and then bed for baby.

Then go back and clean up bathroom and downstairs for a large glass of wine!

I did baby in baby bath on floor next to toddler in main bath for a while. Also dds only get a bath 2-3 times a week to simplify

I'm not at that stage yet as DC2 isn't arriving for another few weeks but this sistuationnis something I've been thinking about. could you get something like a schnuggle bath to have on the floor in the bathroom so you can have toddler in the bath and baby in the baby bath at the same time?

The schnuggle sort of sits a baby upright without you having to hold them.

Thanks very much for the responses. Unfortunately our bathroom is tiny so not enough space to have the baby bath on the floor and then all 3 of us comfortably moving around it!

Seatoski your routine sounds great and I’m going to give that a try! For some reason in my befuddled mind it hadn’t even occurred to me to do one after the other in the bath. I was hooked on having to put them both in together and how hard that would be

DS is nearly 3 and DD is 7 months. I’ve only recently started bathing them together by myself now she can sit up and she’s getting filthy from weaning. I get toddler sorted in bath and then dunk baby in for a bit. Then take her out and dried off. Her room is right next to the bathroom though so I’m happy enough kind of popping in and out. Then I let her roll about on floor and get toddler out and dried etc in his room. Then baby and toddler and I read a story and do his bedtime and then I put baby to bed afterwards. If I need to put her to bed first (naps complicate everything) then I let toddler watch tv or iPad while I feed baby and put her to bed.

Ideally DH is home and we take a child each. But it’s not possible every night. Previously I only bathed the baby when DH was here and I just held her while DS was in the bath or she liked her bouncy chair in the bathroom (or hallway). Or do bathtime at another time of day. Or when the baby is napping? It’s hard juggling them both though

I also don’t bath my kids every night. And I have also previously brought all the baby pjs and nappy etc into the bathroom and got her ready right next to the bath while DS is in it.