Bedtime routine when outnumbered - tips please!

[TinyTeacher]

Are/were you happy with your bedtime routine with more than one child?

I have a 5yo DD and 14 month twins. Bedtime is going ok, but there are things I feel are missing! With myDD I used to readto her and sing lullabys. She still gets stories and lullabys. My twins haven't had a bedtime story since they have become mobile! We used to split it so my DH would put DD to bed and I managed the twins. But once they could pull up/crawl it was impossible to get them calm. So now a put all 3 in the bath, then I get one twin out while DH supervises DD and twin2, I put twin 1 to bed then come back for twin 2 and DH gets DD out and starts stories. But that means I have to get each boy down quickly before the other one gets cold/grumpy, so no stories or lullabys, I just feed him to sleep so he's down as quickly as possible.

Would love to hear how others manage! I'd really love my boys to have a snuggly bedtime with stories and singing, but I just can't work it out right now!

With my twins we had a little chair in the bathroom. When I got the first one out I'd wrap them in a towel so they were all cosy while I finished off with the other one. Then I'd get them both dry and into bed before story. Usually they sat in one of their beds for story so they could snuggle up.

I so love the ideaof of them snuggling up for a story! Mine just won't stay still and fight over the book with me/each other.... never had this with my eldest, she loved to snuggle up!

Could you read them a story in the bath? We’ve had to do this with DD1 (now 3) since she became mobile, and now DD2 has a bath with her and also ‘listens’ (ha) to the story.

You could then get one out, dry and dressed then the other, and put them both in bed at the same time?

I have no experience with twins, but I do have experience with a hyperactive toddler who never ever sat still for a story!

Oh @timeturnerplease that's a brilliant idea! I'm so desperate to be more stories into their lives but they fight over books.. a have so many board books from when DD was little and they are pristine, but my twins fight over them and we have so many that are torn now. In the bath they are confined in bath seats (Also not a necessity for DD once she was a good sitter, but the boys would climb all over the place and get to be out!). Maybe once they get familiar with a couple of books we might be able to do them in bed.... fingers crossed! I'd do love to have a nice calm bedtime for them, I'm sure they'd sleep better!

The issue of getting them out is that I find if they go straight into the bedroom after bath they stay relatively calm with 1:1 attention. If they do too much crawling around once they are out the get very hyperactive and can take an hour to get to sleep, at which point they are overtired and wake screaming half an hour later, which disturbs my eldest.

Honestly, I can't work out which problems are caused by them being twins and which ones are just because they seem to be very hyperactive and bonkers!

Ah I can’t help with the getting out because DD1 was exactly the same (though thankfully was first and singular child) - had to have the most immensely calming, solid bedtime routine in order to get her to actually sleep.

I hope at least the story in the bath helps - I can see me doing this for years!