A night time routine that is the basis of my daughters amazing sleep

I wanted to take an opportunity to document a night time routine that has worked for our daughter who has slept through every night since 6 months of age, she is now 18 months and we feel this routine done exactly the same every night has been much of the reason for the success.

5.30 - Dinner time - no TV on I and try to eat with her if possible. We have a small play on the play mat afterwards and always let her know that we will be having a bath soon. I have found that always keeping her informed along the way makes for a smoother transition through all of the stages of the routine so nothing is a surprise.

6.10 - Bath time - while she watches the bath fill she will choose some toys for the bath and sometimes even try to drop her clothes in too. I love to use a sleepy bath time wash to get those sleepy scents in the air (I actually believe they work!). When bath time is finished we get her to pull out the plug then wrap her in a towel and give her the toothbrush.

6.30 - Dressing time - into the bedroom we go to have a little dressing ritual, the lights are always dim at night time to make sure the mood is nice and relaxing. Nappy on, a foot massage with exactly 4 counted out pumps of lavender almond oil, pj's on then a cuddle. We always take the toothbrush back to the bathroom and hang up the towel. When we were using the aroma snooze, this is when we would turn on the diffuser to make the room smell nice and relaxing with their remedy blend.

6.35 - Book time - every night we read 2 books in the rocking chair, I don't sway from the 2 books, sometimes it can be hard if you've chosen 2 big ones but one trick I can still get away with is grabbing a few pages at a time and she doesn't even notice. I'm sure it won't be long before she realises though.

6.45 - Bed time - we have goodnight cuddles and blow kisses, we go and visit the moon to see if we can see it. We go inside and put on our sleeping bag, get our comforter, turn on the white noise and turn off the bedroom light. We cuddle as I sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star 2 times, then I say our sleep phrase, give her a kiss and pop her into bed. Walk out of the room and close the door.

She falls asleep within moments of me leaving the room. She is so very secure in knowing exactly what comes next that she is more than ready for sleep by the time we are at that point. 

I really think it's important to always consider how you would want something to happen as an adult and copy that for your child. An example would be that if you were to have a certain sleep time every night, you would likely have your shower at the same time each night, you would brush your teeth and put on any face creams, you would probably sit on your phone for a little bit and then maybe at that point you would be ready to submit to the night. I feel like we forget that we do need these wind down processes ourselves and therefore might not realise how important it is for our babies too. 

I hope you were able to get something out of this blog post that you might be able to implement into your night routine, leading to better sleep for the whole family. 

x Nicole.