Who else wants more sleep? Nighttime sleep can be evasive with a baby in the house. Many parents struggle upwards of a year coaxing their little ones nightly into sporadic stints of slumber. Help your child get to sleep faster, and win yourself some much-needed shut eye by gleaning a few tips from our effective baby bedtime routine.
Summer Elizabeth has been put to sleep the same way since she was first born. She’s also been a 12 hour+ all-night sleeper since 5 months old, but that’s a whole different post. I’m not saying that our baby bedtime routine necessarily has anything to do with her straight “A” sleeping skills, but it certainly has been effective to ease her into a peaceful nighttime sleep for 18 months & counting in 7 different bedroom locations around the globe.
Our baby (now toddler) bedtime routine at a glance:
- 5 minutes before the bedtime routine begins, I let baby know that it will soon be bedtime.
- Daddy undresses Summerbeth while I ready the bath/shower water.
- Mommy bathes Summer & Daddy preps her room for sleeping: closes curtains, lays out pjs, our go-to nighttime cloth diaper & blankets, readies the CD player with our lullaby worship disc.
- Dress baby in night-night clothes & towel dry her hair in a semi-lit room.
- Pray together as a family as baby nurses.
- Tuck in that sweet, drowsy little girl.
If you’ve got great suggestions about how to make baby bedtimes more manageable and stress-free or if you’re at wit’s end and need a little advice & encouragement, please share below in the comments or email me at jellibeanjournals (at) hotmail (dot) com.
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Pinned it!
Monica
PS I do a Friday Linky party if you want to link up!
http://happyandblessedhome.com/category/family-fun/
Thanks, Monica, for pinning & for the invite. So glad you stopped by today!
Thanks for the tips! I’m about to have to start putting our 8mo daughter down in a crib (not where she normally sleeps) for nap time once in the morning and once in the afternoon. While I won’t be bathing her these times, I can still nurse and play worship music as you suggested. It’s a new routine for her, so I’m still a little apprehensive…. Hope it works out. Thanks again.
Naps have always been the trickiest sleep scenario at our house. My little girl resisted them with determination until she was about 9 months old. Our nap routine’s pretty quick and simple: sing her naptime song (which happens to be “O Holy Night”) while holding baby in my arms swaying, lay her in the crib & cover her up, leave the room. Sometimes she talks to herself for the hour in the crib, usually sleeps, and occasionally shrieks, but 99% of the time I keep her in bed the full hour. Hope your nap routine works well for your little one. Stick with it and she’ll likely figure it out!
these are great tips Jelli. i think for any routine starting as little as possible works best. unfortunately, i dropped the ball on that one, and now that the kids are older is so difficult to get them to bed on time. i am desperately trying to come up with ways i can coax them to want to stick to a routine!
go little girl! good sleepers are such a blessing. our little dude is two months old and has started having more consistent nights of sleeping from 10-6. thank the Lord! we like sleep in these parts. 😉
you little girl is gorgeous for the record!
xo
What great news! 10-6 is excellent for such a little guy. Thanks for stopping by, Nicole!
I am with you girl! Getting your baby to sleep is SO important! These are such great tips!! We have a similar bedtime routine. It takes a bit longer with my now 2 boys, but bedtime has been pretty consistent overall. I LOVE your blog and the natural parenting aspect! #SITSblogging
Thank you so much for your kind words, Jennie. I think you stopped by my site an hour or so before my BIG baby sleep post went live. I’m always a little hesitant about writing these parenting tips posts because baby sleep is such a touchy and personal topic. I’m so happy to meet you today and hope to see you around again soon. Great work getting your kiddos to bed consistently. You’re definitely a go-to mom for advice, I’m guessing. I know our friends ask all the time about how we manage to get our children to sleep well. Have a super week.
Our son, Kamden, has been transitioning a bit lately in a very positive way …. sleeping 5-7 hours SOLID at night. However, two nights ago, we tried something new: instead of Mommy feeding him his last bottle and putting him to bed, she went to bed herself and Daddy did feeding/bedtime ritual. The past two nights have been DISASTERS. I’m not even joking. With me, Kamden’s fed and asleep for the night by 10:30, no later than 11. With Dad, however, it’s been 12:30 or 1:00am. Now, instead of me getting a few extra hours of sleep before having to get up and pump in the night, all three of us are frustrated, tired, and overwhelmed with the stress of it all. I want my Husband to be included, but this is NOT working out. I certainly don’t mind feeding Kamden, but a few extra hours of sleep sure are nice … especially since I get up once or twice in the middle of the night to pump and then I feed Kamden sometime between 3-5am. Any tips for including Dad? Making the transition easier? Hearing my baby fuss for an hour when his Daddy puts him to bed makes me want to cry too.
Nicole, did you read my recent baby sleep post? It’s the only advice I’ve really got to offer. Hearing him cry really is the pits, but after a few nights they usually settle in and realize that it’s bedtime. Even when I weaned my daughter at 20 months and Daddy stepped in to put her to bed, there were a few tears those first nights. It’s wonderful that you want to involve your husband in bedtime rituals and that he’s up for it too. Will email you.