Bedtime Stories....

[TettyLouBar]

Hi all,
I may be jumping the gun hugely here, I have a nearly 6mo DD and she's beginning to enjoy listening to me read to her during the day (my cunning way of sneaking in a chapter of whatever book I'm reading during the day). Obviously at the moment its more the sound of my voice and the tone, volume etc that keeps her attention (not the content of the gripping story!), but recently theres been alot of stuff on tv about reading to your children and improving their chances of being interested in books etc.

What age did you start reading to your LO?
What is the routine at bedtime?
I think if I tried to read to her at the moment at bedtime it would just keep her attention and stop her from falling asleep?

i started bed time stories at about 6 months, before her last bf. since then, the routine has become, milk, teeth, bath, stories,cuddle, bed.dd loves the snuggle that comes with the stories, and loves being able to hear the same stories every night her choice, not mine!!

I did exactly the same with my ds, and then at some point he wanted to actually look at the books and realised that pages and pages with just writing on them is BORING. So we started on picture books and haven't looked back since.

Incidentally, I never read to him when he's in bed, we read randomly during the day whenever he feels like it, and most evenings after dinner we sit on the couch together and "wind down" by reading. But I also think if I tried to read to him while he was actually in bed and trying to fall asleep, it would stop him from falling asleep!

Ah I see, I might start doing the "winding down" strategy actually, sounds good. Was looking at books today in the shops and was a bit bewildered with the choice and whether to go for pictures or stories?! Its a minefield out there!!

I started bedtime stories with dd (now 6.5mths) when she was about 13 wks.

She has dinner at about 5.20pm, some tv, bath, stories bottle and in bed asleep by 7pm.

We have lots of the hard picture/story books. Lots of pictures with a about a sentence on each page. She loves them.

at 6 months, i used to read the ' that's not my....' books with dd - they have great touchy feely bits, and even now, she still sometimes seeks them out and asks me to read them to her.
we do it as a wind down too - we have a comfy chair in her room and we snuggle up together. i couldnt do it in her bed- too tempting for me!!

So I'm thinking I might have a winddown period after bathtime, but dd is so used to having bath then bottle straight away. It might take a few attempts to get her used to the new routine.