Bedtime routine for 3 children

[Emsb18]

I've just given birth, and have three children. I have two sons, aged 5 and 3 (turns 4 in august) and a daughter who is literally weeks old.

My two sons love reading- it's something I have done with then every night since they were born as I've been determined to make sure they enjoy reading. Our bedtime has always been really enjoyable - we head upstairs at 7pm, bath them together and then my husband will read books with one of them and i will read books with another. Now we have a third baby, im finding it quite stressful as I want to make sure our boys continue to get that 1-2-1 time at night. But, I'm also trying to breastfeed, and also start to introduce a bedtime routine for my daughter - bath, feed, massage and books then straight down to bed. Does anybody have any tips for managing this with 3 children to ensure all still get a nice bedtime routine. I'm wondering about bathing the baby first and getting her to bed first and then maybe bathing the two boys slightly later but not sure what time they should go to bed on a school night. Just interested as to what other people do

Just following as I'm due in August and likely to be in the same position! We've always had a similar bed time routine to you. I think in my head, baby will just have to go with the flow while I focus on the other two - worry about routine for baby more from 4+ months.

Following this to see if anyone has any tips. My 3rd is a few weeks old too and honestly bed times have been madness, usually only helped by having the baby in a sling.

Personally it's the opposite here. Put the baby to bed last as under six months should be with you for all sleep anyway. So I'd keep baby in the room with either child then take baby downstairs again with me until I went up to bed. This is also then useful during the witching hours phase of crying and on and off the boob 7-11pm every night for weeks.

Keep doing what you are doing with the older 2 whilst wearing baby. Once they are settled for the night, ( not necessarily asleep) Give baby a bath etc..and wear again, in case you need to pop back into the older 2.

My age gaps were smaller but I kept the same routine with the older two and the baby just fitted around them. If necessary, your DH will have to step in but you should be able to quietly breastfeed the baby in a way that doesn’t take away from the attention the child you are reading to gets. I would alternate each night which child you read to though.