Bedtime Routine: What I wish I had done

Happy Furlong Friday!!

When I had my oldest son, as I have mentioned, I had severe PPD. And as a new mom I had no idea how to get my new baby on a schedule, let alone myself. Pumping around the clock made my burst of energy to do anything but sleep few and far between. But I was obsessed with giving my son a bath every day. I had what is known as postpartum OCD. If I didn't give him a bath I would become irrationally angry, have anxiety attacks, and be very moody. I feel so bad for my husband at this point in our lives because I was not myself.

Anyway, I HAD to give Andrew a bath. Even a spounge bath. (And no, he never had any dry skin, cradle cap or eczema as a result of this.) But the problem was that I would give him a bath at 10AM one day, 3PM the next day, 7PM the next day, 1PM the next day... It was all over the place because I just did it whenever I worked up enough energy to get out of bed. And because of that he would sleep during the day and then be up all night. 

It wasn't until I started to recover from PPD that I started to give him a bath at the same time every day before bedtime, and it made all the difference once we got that routine down. 

Bath 

Lavender lotion

Swaddle

Bottle/singing 

Bed

Every. Single. Night. At the exact same time. In that exact order. He started sleeping longer periods at night and was sleeping completely through the night by 6 months (No "crying it out" at all. I'll explain how I did that in another post.) 

So when I had my second son, I started that exact routine with him the very day he came home from the hospital. I did it right along with Andrew's routine. First I'd give Andrew his bath, then let him watch a movie while I washed Benjamin. Then I would swaddle and nurse Ben while reading a book to Drew and singing to them both. Then they both went down to sleep by 8:30PM and that gave me 3-4 hours to clean up the house, spend some time with Tyler or get some seriously needed rest before Benjamin would wake up for his next feeding. 

Benjamin eased right into this routine perfectly and has never had a problem with Bedtime. They are two and one year old now and we still do this routine, only now they bathe together. 

We brush teeth. 

We say family prayer (Drew usually prays and he is SO thankful for firetrucks and footballs). 

We read "Goodnight Moon" together. 

We sing "Billy Boy" while I tuck them in. 

We give kisses and then it is lights out. And they don't wake up until 8AM. I do check on them once or twice before I go to sleep myself. 

(A big thank you to Tyler, for snapping these pictures for me!) 

I know every child is different, and you'll need to adjust your schedule to your own needs. I also know that some kids just don't require a lot of sleep! But thankfully my boys are pretty easy when it comes to that! 

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