Creating a toddler bedtime routine is a must! Here is our story with our third child.
Oh bedtime routine. It’s 4:32 am and what is my toddler doing? He’s standing in bed dancing, yep – dancing. Oh wait, now he is screaming waking the household up. Oh now he is laughing.
This folks is what you call toddler sleep exhaustion – at it’s worse. He refuses to sleep. His little 3-month old brother has laid here peacefully through the last numerous hours of Izaiah’s non-sleep meltdowns.
And this is what happens we move him off of his routine. We were visiting Grandma. Those words alone should explain it all.
Toddler Bedtime Routine
I am not by nature, a routine type person – but my kid – he thrives on routine – especially at bedtime. Here is what our toddler bedtime routine looks like:
- Bath
- Change into PJs
- Pray
- Sing “You are my Sunshine”
- Play with light switches
- Throw him in the crib with a blanket
- Turn on Rockabye Baby
Then he sleeps, and hard for at least 10 hours straight.
But what happens when we get off of his routine? CHAOS. We were at Grandma’s house and with no routine, it was cray cray.
Here we are at the grocery store at 9:30 pm because his Daddy is sick. We can’t find shoes, so you gotta do what you have to do. And the pizza guy took 2 hours, so eating a cereal box in the cart – all of this is completely normal.
The dude has to go to bed at 8:30 pm or else his schedule gets out of whack. At this point, he may not get to sleep until 8:30 am.
Izaiah is now 20-months. One would think at 20 months that their child would be sleeping. Well – yes, as long as there is routine. This random what have you at Grandma’s house just is not for this kid.
Life with 4 kids, it never bores!
At least he’s cute.
Does Your Toddler Need Routine?