Mastering Bedtime

Another milestone reached for me recently. I no longer find putting the three kids to bed by myself daunting. I stagger it slightly, and if I know I will be on my own I tend to miss the bath for Freyja and Theo and just get them to have a wash. Although I'm quite happy to get them in the bath if they need it.

So Noah goes first, bath at 6pm then into his sleepsuit and fed. I sometimes get the other two in their pyjamas before feeding Noah, and if they are bathing then Theo goes in with Noah and Freyja gets in when Noah comes out. But as Noah's bedtime is creeping earlier it is often easier just to get Noah down and then get the other two upstairs at around 6.30pm. Then it's a wash for both of them, Freyja get her pjs on and reads to herself (she is a fully fledged independent reader now. It has come at the exact right time for us and made things very easy as she is happy to sit in her bed reading while we get the boys to bed. And quite often she justs wants to read herself until lights out, rather than have a story) while I help Theo into his pjs and then do his stories, with lights out at around 7pm. Once he's done (usually after a fair bit of negotiation around the number of stories he's having. His absolute favourite trick is to decide what his last story will be, then, as I get to the last page, say 'no, no, I've changed my mind, I don't want this one'...!) I see if Freyja wants a story or to do something else with me (she often likes to do her sticker dolly dressing books with me instead of a story.) Lights out for Freyja is at 7.30pm. It all goes fairly smoothly as long as Noah goes straight down, which he normally does, though he often wakes and needs settling again after 45mins/hour.

So there is is. Bedtime x 3, when I'm on my own!