What's your bedtime routine?

[florenceuk]

At the moment DS takes ages to get to bed. In theory it is teeth and bath, then two stories then bed. But this is interspersed with much running around, and lots of rituals eg having to play with handheld shower until bath is big enough to float in; at least one of the stories is the Cat in the Hat, which takes a good 15min to read; goodnight kiss must be accompanied by at least two stories about when he was a baby (from both Mum and Dad). Then he won't stay in bed, but that's another problem of its own... All in all, it can take up to an hour and a half to get DS off to bed - or longer.

I'm a bit worried about managing this when baby no 2 arrives on the scene. Any advice - what's your routine?

5.30 tea for ds1 and ds2

6.00 bath for ds3

6.30 play a bit with ds's

6.45-7pm dh baths ds1 and ds2, I feed ds3

7pm milk (and books if time) for ds1 and ds2

7.15-7.30 ds's all to bed.

Forgot to say - ds1 age 3.5, ds2 age 2, ds3 age 5 weeks.

Start telling kids to get ready for bed at about 7.45. Tell them again at 8. Remind them at regular 5 min intervals with increasingly high stress levels until they are threatened with death by 1001 punishments at 8.30. Ignore please of extra time until they get fed up and fade away into sleep.

You all seem so much more efficient than me - here we are usually not sitting down for story a good 30-45min later after bathtime, with actual bedtime quite some time later. Definitely doing something wrong - I think I shall begin by hiding the Cat in the Hat....

Have a 26 month old and a 7 month old.

6.00-6.30 tea
normally finish by 7, we all eat together
7.00-7.30 dd1 helps tidy the tea things away
7.30-8.30 playtime with daddy for dd1 & dd2
8.30 - bathtime, dh and I normally do 1 each
youngest goes straight to sleep
oldest has a story read to her, normally asleep by 9.

Ok, bit later than everybody else, but DH would never see kids if in bed earlier. But it works well for us

oh, thought you wanted my persoanl routine..well i'll tell you anyawy
put PJs on when kids do - aboyut 8ish..crash/watch TV/Mumsnet depending until 10 is, retire to bed, read for 5 mins then turn light off before DH even comes upstairs

Florenceuk - dd1 (3.4) is currently obsessed with Cat in the Hat, so much so that she knows if I try to cut some of it out so I am turning into the world's best 'speed-reader'. And I challenge anyone to beat me (especially when there's a glass of wine calling my name) .

I feel like such a bad mother. I know children like routines but can't cope with them myself. Dh works abroad and the idea of getting anyone into bed by 7.30 fills me with envy! As there's a 10 year age gap between the oldest and youngest I can't really expect them to be in bed early BUT none of them moan and the baby rarely wakes in the night, even though I had to set my alarm for 2am to retrieve dd2s salt dough from the oven before craft club... motherhood has no bedtime.

florenceuk - just a thought - are you a bit like me, in that you never focus but constantly - to use a turn of phrase - multi-task? ie you pop downstairs just after he's out of the bath, to bung a load of washing on (so that it's ready to take out later...); or you tidy up while he's in the bath (making bath-time a bit longer than it need be); or you sort out some laundry while he's putting his pjs on? I do this all the time, and recently I have become convinced that it can be counter-productive - it makes bed time feel like it stretches on and on. On a good day I make sure tea comes early - 5 o clock and have tidy-up time after tea. This gives me chance to do some of the jobs that need doing, but getting dds involved too, and makes me more inclined to actually then focus on the job of bath and bed, rather than flit about doing several things at once. I find it more relaxing if I write off an hour or so and accept that nothing else will be done - I then find I can actually enjoy Cat in the Hat. I do sometimes see just how fast I can do Fox in Socks