Solo bedtime help

[Allme501]

So I’m due my second baby in a few weeks and already have a son who is 5. My husband works shifts so on occasions I do bedtime alone and currently read my little boy to sleep but I don’t know how I’m going to do that once the baby is here.

My husband has a few months off work so I have some time before I’m doing solo bedtime but my question is what do other people do in this situation?

xx

You’ll bring the baby with you to put your 5 year old to bed. That’s it really. You’ll do the bedtime story holding your newborn. If newborn needs feeding you’ll do that while you tell DS his story. Then at a certain point baby will be wriggly and disruptive and you won’t be able to stay as long with DS so you’ll explain to him that you need to do x, y, z but you’ll be able check on him in a bit, and you’ll take it from there. I think it seems more daunting than it is in practice. But no, you won’t be able to read DS to sleep any more but you can
give him lots of love and reassurance and keep popping back to check on him. You could stay in the room with him for a few minutes while he falls asleep, and bounce or feed the baby, but you’ll probably need to go before he’s asleep

I used to bathe together. Baby on the angelcare base thing, DC1 on the other end, wash baby then take him out and dress while DC1 plays. Then baby in bouncer behind me while I quickly wash DC1. Eventually baby got chunkier and I could wash DC1 while baby was in the bath too. It got awkward around 12m when baby was wiggling and refusing to sit still but we got through it.

I don’t know if I’m sleep deprived but I read that as bath time 🤣🤣 ignore me and have a great evening 🤣🤣🤣

Different age gaps but I had a 2year old when my second arrived.
the yoto has been an absolute godsend for us. My routine if I’m doing bedtime alone is get them both ready together, baby first, then toddler and plays on floor whilst toddler is getting PJs on etc, then pop toddler in her cot with some books and the yoto and told her to wait for me whilst I put baby to bed and will be back to read stories. This has worked whether the baby goes down immediately or takes a bit longer.

First post nails it. It will be easier than you think and you really have no way you can plan it now as you don't know what sort of baby you'll have.

Congratulations ❤️

One thought I just had - if you’re still doing things for DS that he’s competent to do himself, like putting his PJs in for him, get him to do it himself from now on. Will make it easier doing everything with the baby there

Just putting my 10 month old down after getting my 2yr old to sleep solo. Clocks going back have thrown their schedules 🙃

The first few times were absolute hell, not going to lie, but you get into the swing of things.

I’d always put my toddler down first as he was the one with a routine, the baby was a potato and didn’t even know he existed, let alone have a routine.I’d either feed him to sleep and pop him in his moses basket just outside the ajar door or baby wear.

You just figure out what works and it does all just click

This. And if you’re lucky, you might put the baby down in his bassinet for a minute to sort something for older DC and the baby will fall asleep! I couldn’t believe it as my first never slept anywhere except on me!