I’m sure you have heard that the easiest way to get your children to sleep is to create a bedtime routine. When I saw the J&J commercials showing the mom giving the baby the bath and lotion and a book. I thought wow I wish I had the time to do that. But then I read that the best bedtime routines are short.

Zane and I started our bedtime routine slowly. First we changed into our PJs, read our book, said our prayers, and then went to sleep. Sometimes I would forget a step or just not be up to doing part of the routine. But I found that if I followed it step by step he slept better.

I also found it was hard to get him to go upstairs to go to bed. He would scream, run and hide. Which became hard to handle when I was nine monthes pregnant. But I found that if I found that he loved going up the stairs by himself and that he loved to brush his teeth. So I started luring him upstairs with these two ploys.

Bedtime Routine

Now our routine slowly grew and now going to bed is as easy as 123.

  1. We pick up our toys and books
  2. Zane meets mommy at the gate
  3. Zane goes up the stairs like a big boy
  4. We brush our teeth (read more about this below)
  5. Zane meets mommy in his room
  6. We change our diaper and get in our PJs (Zane is learning how to do this by himself)
  7. Zane and I rock in the rocking chair while I read a book(Zarek hangs out on the changing pad)
  8. Zane gets into bed by himself
  9. He gets his blankets, binky and lovey, Judah
  10. We say our prayers and say night night

This goes by pretty quickly and usually only take twenty minutes if he gets to have two books that night. So a bedtime routine works for me.

Brushing our Teeth

Zane has always loved to brush his teeth so it has never been hard to get him to do it. But from the very beginning I made it a fun affair. I would always sing his favorite song, Twinkle, Twinkle, twice every time I brushed his teeth. Now this did two things for me. It made it enjoyable for Zane and two Twinkle, Twinkles equals two minutes so I knew that I was brushing his teeth long enough.

I would always let him have the brush to “brush” his teeth by himself. He loves to brush his teeth so I suspect when he gets older he will start doing it all by himself. (I now brush my teeth with him, so that way I make sure to get my teeth brushed every night.)

I found that sometimes the time he would brush his teeth before bed would get longer and longer, so now he is allowed two Twinkle, Twinkle while he is brushing and then he has to put away his brush. Sometimes we sing ABC and/or Baa, Baa Black Sheep.

This always is what Works for Me to get Zane’s teeth brushed well and teach how to be responsible about brushing his teeth.

Written by

Pepper Ferguson

Hi I'm Pepper. My family and I are sharing pieces of our lives.
We hope to inspire you by showing that even small changes can make the biggest differences in your life. You don't have to go to extremes to become healthy. Just do it one habit, one meal, one walk, and one hug at a time.

Let's work together one piece at a time making better habits, eating healthier, getting moving, and most of all loving our families.

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