My daughter – 18 months has been sleeping through since 14 months old. Now many parents have different experiences with their kids, some sleep through at 6 weeks, some only at 2 years. Some do sleep training, some just let life ride. None of these are wrong, your child = your rules. Also, every child is different. Many people have asked me how I got my child to sleep through and what her bedtime routine entails and so I thought id write a blog post on the topic.
My daughter bedtime routine starts at 4pm. 4pm, come winter or summer this is her bathtime (The only exception to this time is if we out visiting but even then I try to bath her wherever we are at that time. 95% of the time 4pm we bath!). During the week my nanny will bath my daughter if I’m not home yet and on weekends my husband or myself bath her. Bath time usually lasts between 30-45 mins with getting her dressed afterward which sometimes involves a bit of running around and playtime.
By the time we finish its around 4:45. Then we just let her run around to burn some energy. This usually involves chasing our 2 cats which are both petrified and adore her at the same time. Cats are her favorite animal, also known as “Kitty” “itty” and “Kits”. We do dinner around 5:30pm, supper always depends on if we have supper ready for ourselves or not. if we do then she will eat what we are having, if not ill make her something easy and quick.
After dinner its time to relax and wind her down. We will watch one of her favorite movies, generally Tangled, Shrek or The Grinch. It doesn’t keep her attention 100% so we play with some puzzles and read some books in-between. Depending on when she wakes up with her afternoon nap depends on what time we will put her to bed. This timeline falls between 6-7. No later than 7. 15 mins before we going to put her to bed, I will give her, her immune booster and returina drops and then warm up some milk.
While she drinks her milk I will change her nappy and straight after her milk is finished we start with good night love for daddy. I put her in bed with her teddy and put a warm blanket over her. I then give her 3 kisses on the forehead and say “I love you, Night, Night” and wave goodbye. At this point, 2 things can happen. 1 – She stays still and cuddles her teddy. 2 – she sits up and stares at me as I walk away from her bed. Either way, I still do the same thing before I leave the room, I wave good-bye and say good night.
Depending on how tired she is she will either go straight to sleep or she will talk to herself for about 30 mins before she goes to sleep. I do not walk back into that room unless she cries for more than 5 mins. If that does happen I will go in and give her a dummy and walk straight out again. Just before I go to be I will go check up on her to ensure she is covered and warm. The rest of the evening is smooth sailing and she normally wakes up between 6:30-7:30.
Well, that’s her routine. How old are your children and what are their routines like? Any tips and tricks that worked for you?
The Womanhood Game 