A few months ago, Rick has taken over the majority of the bedtime responsibilities. Part of the reason is that once the baby comes, Gwen will no longer be able to to have both of our undivided attention as she often does now. We thought it would be a good idea to have her accustomed to the new routine long before the baby comes so that she doesn't blame the change on the baby.
Also, putting Gwen to bed just isn't my favorite task. After I've spent all day with her, I'm exhausted by 7:00 and ready for a break. It kind of makes me feel bad to admit that. Rick, on the other hand, loves to spend time with her in the evenings, so helping her get ready for bed is a lot more fun for him. Plus, it's nice for Gwen to get daddy-daughter time.
So, here is our routine now...
1. Turn on relaxing "night-night" music and lower the lights to create a calming atmosphere.
2. Brush teeth, go potty, and put on PJ's. Usually we are both present for this portion, which we need to start to phase out soon. How many people does it really take to brush a 3-year-old's teeth?
3. Read scriptures and say family prayer. We are always together for this part. After this I give Gwen a hug and kiss and Rick does the rest.
4. Gwen gets the option of having Daddy read her 2 or 3 books or listening to a story on CD.
5. Lights out. Daddy then cuddles with Gwen while telling her a dragon story and then sings her a few songs.
6. Kiss good-night and it's sleepy time.
This past week, Rick had a few obligations and I put Gwen to bed on 4 different nights. (But who's really counting?) Rick and Gwen seem to love the above routine, but it was a little long for me.
A dragon story? She expects an original dragon story every night involving Princess Gwendolyn, Prince Cole, and Mr. Dragon. She also wanted me to sing her 3 "funny" songs meaning that she wanted me to take her regular songs and substitute in silly words in random places. She also wanted a dragon song, which is basically Puff the Magic Dragon. But, she wants me to change the lyrics to go along with the dragon story of the night. Apparently, Rick has set the bar pretty high for bedtime activities. It's so hard to be creative when I'm so tired! I swear more than a half hour went by before I was done.
I know in a few more years, I will miss cuddling in bed and telling stories. I'm trying to cherish these moments, because they are very sweet. On the nights when I'm tired, I have to remind myself that time flies by much more quickly than I sometimes realize.
When Rick and I go to bed at night, we always peek in on Gwen. There is often evidence that she didn't fall asleep right away. Maybe our bedtime routine isn't relaxing enough? We found her like this a few nights ago. Her head should have been on the left side of the bed, so she really missed the mark. Plus, these baby dolls were not on her bed when Rick put her down. Can she be any cuter?
How does our bedtime routine compare to yours???
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It is tradition that Matt reads to the kids at night. We have dinner, the kids brush their teeth and put jammies on (sometimes there's dessert first), we have scripture and prayer together, and then Matt reads a book to them, usually a short book for Eric and Andrew (that they get to pick if they were good during scriptures and prayer - also, their room has to be picked up), then they read out of a novel which takes quite a long time. Sometimes Matt is in there reading for over an hour! It must be a really exciting part. Carmen will sit in the room with them until she gets fussy and then I take her.
I was glad we started the tradition with Matt putting Jared to bed. It made it a lot easier when Eric came.
Eric also puts the older kids to bed. I agree with you - although I love them dearly, I am ready for a break by bedtime. In our house, the kids get a very short cartoon and then straight upstairs. They brush teeth, go potty and then into bed. They get two songs - Aidan is twinkle twinkle and ABC's and Katie likes twinkle twinkle and I'm A Child of God. We have now added counting to the routine because we have found it's a good quite time to reinforce some skills - then GOODNIGHT! :) Mylie isn't so lucky. :) She gets a bottle while she rocks with me and then she goes straight down. No songs for her - told you I was tired! :)
Nathan usually takes charge of bedtime because by the end of the day, I am no longer patient. :) Gavin goes to bed first with five board books and then lights out. I get the girls p.j.s on while Nathan is reading to Gavin.I usually go downstairs after that. Then Nathan reads five books to the girls, 3 of Aftyn's and 2 of Ainsley's. Then teeth brushed and prayers. We do singing at naptime but now that Ainsley is in afternoon KG, I'm on a tighter schedule to get Aftyn and Gavin to bed, so that's being phased out.
It's good for the Dad to spend quality time with his kids at bedtime. He really wouldn't spend much time them during the week otherwise. This is something I guilt Nathan with when he complains about putting the kids to bed. :)
Because Andy works so late, bedtime is all me too! Lynnae showers, does teeth and then reads for 20-30 minutes. When she exits the bathroom, Charlie and I go in for teeth brushing and potty. We start with one or two wiggle games. Then I rotate singing songs and reading books with Charlie for about 15 minutes. (He does half the reading now, so we don't get through as many books!) Then we sing Snuggle Puppy as he gets into bed and says his prayer... ending with the Going to Bed Book, which Charlie has memorized. He gets concerned if I don't turn out the light when they do it in the book. Very particular guy...
Then I go into Lynnae's room and we have our nightly meeting to recap the day and plan out tomorrow. If she has picking up to do, or anything leftover from the day I read to her... usually for 15-20 minutes. Right now it's the second Harry Potter book... but soon we are on to A Wrinkle in Time... I'm so excited! I do WAY more reading now than I ever did before - and I actually read a lot before! It's nice that Lynnae likes books that I also like. Sometimes if Charlie's having a hard time sleeping, I let him come in and listen. When this happens, he always snuggles with me and falls asleep right away.
Then I finally go downstairs and talk to my husband. I'm always beat by that time and ready to sit down. It's fun to know what everyone's routines are!
The first thing Dad does is put his recliner in the sitting position and stands
He turns off the TV
He turns off the gas fireplace
He turns off the lights
He turns down the heat
He turns off the computer
I heat a bean bag for each side of our bed
He brushes his teeth and strips to his underwear -- puts his clothes on a chair
He picks up the remote
He turns on the TV to watch the news and maybe David Letterman
I get undressed and leave my clothes in a heap on the floor
We both get into bed
I watch him have an "ahhh" moment as he slides his feet to where the warm bean bag is
He puts his arm around me while reading a guitar or car magazine
We turn off our lights
He snuggles up to me and we go to sleep
Sometimes we don't go right to sleep, but that's another story
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After dinner, Conor gets to have a little dessert before it's time to brush our teeth, change into his footy pajamas, and get into bed. Lately I've been reading him the potty book, since we're still learning how to potty train... Once he's in bed I usually sing him some rap songs to lull him to sleep, but he's a bit of a baby. What can I say, he's only 26 - I can't expect him to do much more than that!!!
:)
After dinner we all go upstairs. I give Rachel a bath while Neil has the boys take turns in the shower. After everyone has brushed their teeth and had their meletonin (a must at our house) we read our scrips and say a family prayer. Then I take Rachel and send Sean to bed. Neil and Jake usually read together and then he prays with Jake and tucks him in. I pray, sing and recite a story to Rachel and kiss her goodnight and then I'm off to Sean's room to do the same thing. Neil usually ends up in Seans room by the time we are into our story. It works well for us and our kids are usually sound asleep by 7:30 (unless we are sleeping at your house :)
Our routine is super short. I think by bed time we are all ready to be alone.
Brush teeth (Jaren does without help)
Go Potty (both do without help)
Jump in Bed
Lights out
1 minute or so made up on the fly bedtime story
Kisses
Out
I think the whole routine may take 10 minutes if we stretch it out.
Family prayers, scriptures and weekly pow wows happen during family time before bed time. Just had to throw that in so you wouldn't think we have fallen too far from the iron rod ;)
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