How does the bedtime routine change when no 2 arrives?

[dejags]

we are trying to conceive no 2 at the moment and one of the main things I wonder about is how on earth we will get through the bath, bottle bed routine when we have a newborn to contend with.

I would be interested in hearing what your bedtime routine for a toddler and a newborn was?

dejags

We tried to keep ours as much the same as normal as poss. They always bathed together, used small baby bath that fitted over big bath for dd2 whilst dd1 in big one at the same time. Then I'd dress, feed dd2 while dd1 was playing. Then dress dd1 and dd2 would have a cuddle/play when bigger whilst dd1 had stories. Then lights out together even if dd2 would come back to our room to be winded/settled. They were sharing a room by the time dd2 was 4ms. Second ones seem to slip into the usual routine pretty easily really. I found dd1 was hard work if her routine was unsettled so it was easier to adapt dd2 to the usual regime. Best of Luck.

Our oldest dd was 16 months when second dd was born, and we kept dd1 routine the same as before.

As dd2 got older with more regularly feeding and bed times, we started to bath them together, at dd1s normal bathtime - this was probably when dd2 was 3 ms ish.

Dd2 is 14 mns now, but we have always taken one dd each at bedtime, after the bath, and they have their milk in different rooms - as dd2 is often sick after her milk.

This separate feeding worked well for us, but when dh is away I still always put dd1 to bed first and then dd2, as I know dd2 will go straight to bed but dd1 can be harder !

So my advice is to keep older childs routine as same as before as poss, and introduce baby into this routine asap HTH !

I second Janey's advice about keeping no. 1's routine as stable as possible and getting no. 2 into it ASAP.

Ds was 25 months when dd was born and had a very good bedtime routine. We bathed dd with her big brother, then I fed her while dh read ds his story and gave him his glass of milk. It was fine as long as we were both there, and took one child each. It was harder but still do-able when dh went away on business and I was on my own.