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But if I fall asleep, I might miss something. |
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by Kristen  (November 2006) (rank 167th) |
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Sleep is one of the biggest battles in our house. If you go to sleep, you just may be missing the party or excitement. Here are some of our tricks to making the bedtime routine for our toddler as relaxing and laid back as possible.
- Brew a cup of herbal tea. Derek loves a nice cup of tea in the evening and it didn't take Ethan very long to want some tea too. Derek made sure that the tea was decaf (nothing worse than a toddler on caffeine), identified a "safe" cup for Ethan to use and then added a little cold water to the cup to lower the temperature of the drink. He and Ethan sit together on the couch with Ethan saying "tea" repeatedly and sipping accordingly. It is very sweet to see and Ethan now realizes that this is part of the routine that moves toward bedtime.
- Warm up a little milk. Drinking warm milk can make you a little sleepy and this works well for kids too. My father-in-law gave Ethan warm milk every night before bed when we were there and Ethan "slept like a baby."
- Keep it quiet. Watching loud television shows or playing rough just before bedtime will keep the energy high and require more time to unwind. Doing quiet things such as taking a bath or reading books will get your child in the mood to go to bed and will make the transition to bedtime a little easier.
- Routine, routine, routine. If you put your child to bed at around the same time every night, they will quickly learn that the party is over at a certain time. We were kind of lax about the whole routine thing and found that Ethan was just crawling up on the couch beside us and falling asleep on one of our laps. I guess his routine was a little more consistent than ours and we learned to go with it.
Bedtime routines seem to be so much harder on the parents than on the kids. It is so difficult for me to stick to a clock and do the same thing every evening. But I find that if I do, Ethan sleeps better and is in a much better mood. Who can argue with a better mood?
