Our Bedtime Ritual

Since we are an "attached" family, you may be curious as
to how we deal with bedtime. I'll give you a bit of a run down on what we do on a typical night.

First, we eat dinner around seven at night. After dinner, daddy plays with the children while I get the dishes cleared up. Then, it's bathtime. We let Zachary play in the bathtub for about 30 minutes. Obviously, Zoe is still too little to play in the tub, so we just wash her and get her pajamas on. Next, Zachary will go and sit on daddy's lap in the livingroom. We do this to get him relaxed and settled down after the bath. They will either watch a little tv (Nick at Night :) or read a book. Zachary will usually drink a little warm milk at this time too. After about 30 minutes, we all head up to bed. Zachary will cuddle up to daddy and they say their prayers, while Zoe cuddles up to me to nurse. Zoe usually falls asleep within 5-10 minutes of nursing. Zachary needs a little more work some nights, but my husband handles it well. If Zachary continues to sit up in bed, my husband lays him back down. We tell him to shut his eyes and to be very quiet. At times, it'll take Zachary 30 minutes to fall asleep.

The key here is patience and both parents getting involved in the night time parenting routine. We are giving our children a sense of security. They know we are there for them if they awake in the middle of the night from a bad dream. They know we are there if they need *anything*. NO, we are NOT spoiling our children, just using nighttime parenting skills to understand and be close to our children.

Sharing sleep with your children may not be for every family, but it works for ours at this point in time. For instance, if your child awakens with any movement from you at night, this isn't a good idea. Also, when your child or children become more restless sleepers, it may be time for their own bed.

Soon, Zachary will be getting a bed of his own. We are waiting untill he's done teething (24 month molars) because he awakes in pain several times a night, right now, from this. We are going to slowly wean him out of our bed by letting him fall asleep with us and then lay him in another bed. We will be doing this because at 24 months, Zac is rolling all over the place when he sleeps. We think he'd do much better in his own bed. We also think *our* sleep will be better because he's always rolling on us :)

Here is an excellent book on nightime parenting:

Nighttime Parenting : How to Get Your
Baby and Child to Sleep
by William M.D. Sears

Here are some links to other nighttime parenting sites:

The Night Night Page

The Family Bed FAQ (What about sex??)

The Family Bed; Sleeping With Your Baby

Attachment Parenting: A Style that Works

Nightime Nurturing