Skip to main content

Small changes: our new bedtime routine

This blog post on our bedtime routine was inspired by a post I read last night on "Mel's 2 Belles" called Bad Habits.

Bedtime is probably the most challenging time of day. By the time bedtime rolls around, your mind is wandering to the bottle of wine you have chilling in the fridge and your body longs to collapse on the couch (with chocolate).

Here was our old bedtime routine:

Dinnertime sometime between 5:30 pm and 6:30 pm, depending on when I started cooking.

After dinner, playing outdoors with the boys.

7:00 pm: bring the toddlers in for bath and pajama time (pajama to the left, pajama to the right, jamma, jamma, jamma, jamma, P! J!) Toddlers then meltdown through entire pajama routine.

7:15-7:30 pm: Toddlers go to bed early because Momma is done listening to meltdowns.

7:45 pm: Momma hollering outside to Husband and preschooler that it is probably time to possibly think about coming inside, maybe?

8:00 pm: Husband wrestles with preschooler through bath time. Preschooler cries through bath time and drags his feet getting pajamas on. A very frustrated-- and rushed-- story time.

8:20-8:40 pm: All the kids usually down for the night. Preschooler is the last one in bed, though the shenanigans in the bathroom and hallway tend to wake up the toddlers.

8:30 pm -ish: Momma starts picking up the rest of the sun room toys, tidying the kitchen and kitchen table, finish packing Husband and preschooler's lunches.

9:15-9:30 pm: Parents finally get to the couch to stare blankly at the television, exhausted by the wrestling match bedtime had become.

Obviously, we needed a change.
So here is our NEW bedtime routine:

Dinnertime, which I already have planned out a week in advance and the ingredients bought via online grocery shopping, is started around 4:30 pm. We usually eat between 5:00-5:30 pm.

Tidy up the kitchen and sun room BEFORE going outside. The toddlers can play outside until, at the latest, 6:45 pm. Bring the toddlers in for pajama time! (Oh, yes, pajama time!) I get them undressed in the same area every night; that way they know what is expected of them ("Okay, it is time to get ready for bed!"). I then have them carry their dirty clothes to the hamper. On bath nights, they go to the bathroom. On nights we aren't bathing, we head to their room for pajamas.

Between 7:00 and 7:15 pm, the preschooler and my husband come inside. (If Husband is not home, D comes inside with us when I bring the toddlers in. He either helps with his brothers or listens to a book on tape while I get them ready for bed.) We read stories all together with all three boys in "the reading chair;" when I read to all the kids at the same time, we try to find easy picture books that appeal to both age groups. I then take the toddlers to their bedroom while the preschooler brushes his teeth and puts on his jams. I read the toddlers some toddler stories (Goodnight, Moon, Jamberry, Sandra Boynton) and put them to bed.

After the toddlers go to bed, around 7:30-7:45 pm, I finish tidying up our living spaces. Sometimes I have our preschooler help with this, like have him wipe down the kitchen table. This is when I finish packing the lunches. (I start packing the lunches when I clean up the dinner mess. I usually pack leftovers for my husband and so half of his lunch is already packed.) Then I come out to the reading chair and read the preschooler some preschool stories (our recent library check outs, Roald Dahl, or whatever books he picks out).

After stories with our four-year old, it is off to bed for him! He gets all his current favorite animals and tucks them all in. Then we say prayers and tuck him in. Lights out by 8:00 pm! (Okay, sometimes we get caught up reading and he doesn't go to bed until 8:15 pm.)

Once all the kids are in bed between 8:00 and 8:15 pm, there is nothing else to do. My husband and I are free to watch a movie! Or a DVR'd show! Or check our email! I don't have a whole room of toys to clean up or a kitchen full of dirty dishes... nope. Nothing. Ah, it is wonderful.

I get done the same amount of things with our old and new schedule. We consciously rearranged our nightly to-do list to make it work better. The kids aren't overtired during bath time and pajama time. By the time we read stories, they are ready to listen. I can relax reading our preschooler stories because I am not thinking about the millions of things I need to get done after he goes to bed. We just made a series of minor adjustments to the schedule. As an unexpected bonus, my husband and I are going to bed earlier. I was staying up until 2 or 3 in the morning (or later) reading and then waking up at 8 am with the kids; this worked until our days got busier and I had less downtime in the afternoon. Now I have time to do the things I want to do much earlier in the evening and don't feel the need to stay up so late to get them done. I am also much more relaxed when the kids go to bed; I felt like I was wound up so tightly before because it was so stressful and there was so much crying.

As a note, the above schedules often say "I do this," instead of my husband doing it. My husband is actually the one who usually does all of this. We try to keep our schedule simplified enough so one person can do it. That way when my husband is home, I can go take care of other things while he takes care of the kids or he can take the preschooler while I take the toddlers. Keeping the schedule simplified also allows me the freedom to go out in the evening, leaving my husband to do bedtime, or vice versa. We've even had-- gasp!-- a baby-sitter. :)

Comments

Mel said…
yeah, I went to see a sleep specialist who told me I am just a night person, haha. I did change a few habits and it is getting better - but having down time once the kids go to bed is such a BIG deal! ;)

Popular posts from this blog

I love my stroller

Napping while we are out. North Carolina September 2011 I get stopped all the time when I go out. I don't mind that people want to wave at my babies or ask D if he is a "big help" or throw their hands up in mock distress and say, "I don't know how you do it." Sometimes, yes, I would rather run in and out of a store, but, honestly, even if people weren't stopping me, would that really happen heading out with three kids? I've gotten used to the "you have your hands full" conversations, but one thing I never tire of talking about is my stroller. People stop me all the time to comment on my stroller, either to tell me that they wish they had that stroller back when their kids were young or to find out what it is and where to get it. Let me start at the beginning. When D was an infant we had two different Chicco strollers, the travel system and the Chicco $40 umbrella stroller. Neither was that exceptional, but they both served their p

Prototype in South Carolina

I'm starting this blog post off with a disclaimer: this was my experience as a Navy spouse as my husband went through prototype, another school in the nuclear Navy officer pipeline-- not his point of view, but mine. These are my thoughts and words, not his. My husband is prior enlisted. When he went through prototype this time around, he had already gone through prototype before {as enlisted}; he had already been on a submarine; he had been in the Navy for 10 years. He went through the STA-21 program {more blog posts on that under " Military Resources "} and is going back through the pipeline as an officer. I felt his prior experience would work to his advantage in prototype and at least give him more time with our family than he had while in power school {read the " Power school " blog post}. Students in prototype are on rotating shift work. The shifts are roughly these times, depending on which boat you get on and various other factors: Days {day shift

Submarine Officer's Basic Course (SOBC)

My husband was picked up STA-21 . I've written several blog posts about our STA-21 journey  and going through the officer pipeline: power school and prototype in South Carolina . It is surreal to me to be writing this post about the last piece of his STA-21 journey, going to SOBC in Connecticut. It doesn't seem that long ago that we received the news that he was picked up STA-21. It was such a whirlwind leaving Hawaii to move to North Carolina for him to get his degree in mechanical engineering; all too soon he graduated college and we were off to South Carolina going through the officer pipeline.It is crazy to me that in a few short weeks we will be back to the fleet. When we left the fleet for the STA-21 program, I felt we had all the time in the world. I tried to remind myself along the way that the time would slip away from us, but it is one thing to know it and another to live it. But I digress. Right now my hubby is at SOBC (Submarine Officer's Basic Course).