Bedtime Routine

Time to enter another Twittermoms contest. This one is sponsored by St. Eve Kids. Be sure to check out Drama U for some cute animated short stories.

What are your five tips & tricks for getting your kids to bed on time and getting them to stay in bed?

The main thing I've learned after 19 months is the importance of routine.

When we get home after I pick up dd from daycare, she gets a bottle of milk. She plays and watches her favourite shows while I cook dinner. As soon as dad arrives, they play for a bit and then we eat dinner. After dinner, it's straight to the tub for dd's bubble bath.

The bath usually settles her down, but not enough to fall asleep, so we still play a bit while drying her hair. We usually go to bed by 7:30. I don't keep any toys in the bedroom, so she doesn't have anything to distract her too much. I try to read a bedtime story, but with her short attention span right it, it only takes a few minutes before she's bored.

She still breastfeeds to get to sleep, but sometimes she goes to bed without milk. We have been co-sleeping, this is the best solution I find that gets us all that much needed rest. It's easy to figure out when she wakes up in the middle of the night if she's hungry. Usually as soon as she feels mom or dad beside her she just goes back to sleep.

That's it, that's our routine that I try to follow almost every night.

Here are some other tricks I've done to get dd to sleep.

Kept the exhaust in the washroom running. The constant humming soothes her I think.
Taken long walks with her in the stroller.
As a last resort, I've done the driving around with her in her carseat.