Apparently hitting my “I’m full term” week means that I’m taking this preparation more seriously. Ha. Feel free to read these posts slowly or just read them while you are here and actively needing this information. Anyone who is not going to be babysitting can obviously skip this information… unless it’s interesting. Then you do you.

Bedtime in our house is pretty relaxed. We have interruptions because of events or dinner guests or stuff like that and that makes our routine fall pretty flat. The only thing that is mandatory is that the kids brush their teeth before bed. MC’s bedtime is 8pm (or they are a grumpy bear) and EC must be in bed by 9:30 but in practice she often goes to bed much earlier.

When we are just hanging out at home by ourselves we tend to finish up dinner/house chores/other stuff by 6 or 6:30. When we finish I encourage them to go brush their teeth pretty much right away because the earlier in the evening they do it the less they whine at me about doing it. If you wait until 7:45 it goes quite poorly.

After brushing teeth we tend to settle in for reading/snuggling. At this point both kids are enjoying taking turns reading out loud even though Noah does most of our bed time reading. MC put me to sleep the other night reading a book to just me when Noah and EC weren’t ready for bed at 7:30. That was so sweet my heart melted. (Yes I do read to my children too…. but reading to one another is a huge bonding task in our house. Everyone is proud to participate.)

I don’t mandate jammies but I do suggest them in the winter because otherwise the kids wake up freezing and feel yucky.

Ah, I make them shut the screen off no later than 7pm so that it doesn’t interfere with their sleep pattern too much.