Bedtime routine for a 12 month old/nap question

[newmom11]

i was just curious what some of you do for a bedtime routine.  since my lo was tiny, we have always read books in a dimly lit room, followed by bath, followed by changing of diaper, dressing in pj's in the dark, followed by bottle in the dark and then off to bed.  if my lo was still awake after the bottle which now a days he always is, he will talk to himself for a few minutes, occassionally fuss for less than 5-10 minutes and off to bed for his 10 hours of night sleep.  as we are starting to wean off of the bottle (currently he only takes and afternoon and night bottle b/c the morning bottle has after a rough couple of weeks been replaced by a sippy cup) i was wondering what a nightime routine might look like.  i know that we need to change it so that the bottle or eventually sippy cup of milk is not the last thing before bed.  any ideas would be helpful?  also we are on one nap a day, my lo is up usually by 6:20 or 6:30 am (always been an early riser), he currently naps at about 1pm...is that way too much activity time for him?  usually about an hour or 1.5 hours of that A time is spent running errands so he's not necessarily very active during that time b/c he's in the car seat or stroller or buggy.  today he cried for about 10 minutes before finally falling asleep and i hate to see him cry himself to sleep.  usually he doesn't give me much problem. he's spirited too so that means he shows no sleep cues.  currently does 10 or 10.5 hours at night and about 2 during the day.  thanks

[coopers_mommy]

Wow 6.5 hours of A time....I'm thinking that a little too much for that age.  Although if he's napping well and sleeps well at night (no NW's) then I don't know if you would need to change that!  You should feel proud that he's already at 1 nap a day (there are a lot of us that have 14-17 month olds that are still not handling the 1 nap a day yet!).

Anyway as far as a routine for bedtime goes, this is ours....

bath
lotion massage
diaper
pj's
book
nurse & prayers
in the crib

We have also always done a nursing right before bedtime and nap time.  In fact I am currently in the process of weaning from these nursings.  The way we are doing it, and maybe one way to slowly wean off the bottle right before bed, is the gradually move that step up one.  Such as right now we are nursing with the lamp on in the room so that DS has no opportunity to fall asleep (unless REALLY tired) while nursing.  Also, just today I have started nursing in another room before his naps so that he wont associate nursing with naps anymore.  That seems to be working with us as I'm not totally prepared for just stopping cold turkey!

HTH

[lilmonkey]

When dd was at that age, her bedtime was: bath & teeth, stories, milk, and bed awake.  It took about 20-30 min.  We coninued with the milk in her room while reading stories until she was about 26 mos when I was trying to PT train her at night.  It was then that I moved the milk to earlier and closer to dinner.  With ds, his routine is bath & teeth with dd, stories with dd in her room, milk in his room and bed.  But he's not too keen on milk so I might give him yogurt just before bathtime.  

As for the naps, if he is happy until bedtime then I think that it is fine.  As for the crying at bedtime, is it a mantra cry or screaming?  Lately I have found that ds also does a little cry b/f sleeping but I know that it is b/c he is cutting a tooth and going through some SA.  I usually do wi/wo.

HTH

[newmom11]

coopers mommy - we have been very fortunate w/ the 2-1 nap switch.  he had been trying to make the switch from about 10 months on and finally at 11.5 months we went cold turkey and he adjusted beautifully.  we've never gone back to 2 naps since we made the switch...my guy just doesn't need a lot of sleep so it wasn't hard for him to transition.  i just wish i could get him to do more than 10 hours at night!  had a question for you about your routine, so after you are done nursing in your lo's room w/ the light on, do you turn the light off and then put him in the crib?  or do you turn the light off and then rock him or anything?  everything in our routine right now is in the dark or a very, very dimly lit room that i can't imagine adding any kind of light to the room.  it's almost like the fact that the room is dark is what helps him transition to sleep mode.  even for naps, i read to him and rock him in the dark (well mostly dark but b/c it's daytime there is still some light seeping in) for a few minutes and then off to his crib awake.  

mimi - today it was screaming.  we have a video monitor and he was kicking his legs...very angry to be in there.  he fell asleep in less than 10 minutes and slept for 2 hrs and 10 mins so i guess he really was tired...maybe overtired???  you said your ds still has milk before bed too?  do you do this in the dark or in the light?  

[coopers_mommy]

Yes, after I am done nursing, I hand him off to DH and turn off the light.  DH then places him in his crib.  For naps, I have begun nursing in our room and then I walk down the hall with him into his room where the lamp is on. I try to rock and sing to him, but if we're rocking then he expects to be nursed, so I then tell him night night and lay him down and then turn off the light.  We will slowly be changing up the night time routine and bring the nursing before reading, then before PJ's, then before bath.  Then hopefully I can drop the nursing all together and replace it with a sippy of milk before bath time!

[lilmonkey]

I do this in a dim room.  As ds is too distracted and he still has a bottle at bedtime.  I might consider giving him his mik in a straw cup during storytime in dd's room in the near future but I'm in no rush as ds is not depending on it to go to sleep.  I just find it to be a nice ending to a hectic day as I hold him and feed him.  It is one of the few times he will let me cuddle him.  He's always on the move during the day.  He is also a spirited guy.  As for the screaming, maybe you can go to his room for some quiet play before you start the routine?  It's almost like setting the stage for nap/bed routine until he is better.