Charlotte has always had a good bedtime routine which consisted of a bath, cup of milk and story, then onto the potty/toilet, clean her teeth and then into bed. I've been able to leave the room with her wide awake for as long as I can remember. She's always settled herself down, sometimes chatting to herself or her toys before drifting off.
Now that Cameron has arrived it is somewhat different, but I'm really struggling to get her back on track and I could do with some help.
We still start our bedtime routine off with a bath, I now bath Cameron at the same time as Charlotte, him in the baby bath, Charlotte in the big bath where she can watch what is going on and be involved. We have a sing-song, chat about the day etc. While I'm bathing Cameron and getting him into his jammies Charlotte can play in the bath, then when I've finished sorting Cameron, I pop him into the crib where I know he's safe and then I wash Charlotte's hair.
After their baths, we all go downstairs and while I feed Cameron, Charlotte has her cup of milk and we all read a story together. Afterwards Cameron is put into the travel cot, (which is set up as a crib downstairs), where he settles down to sleep. Charlotte and I go upstairs to the bathroom, where she sits on the toilet to do her business and then she washes her hands and then cleans her teeth.
This is when the problems start. We get, 'I want a drink of water', so when I say that I'll go and get her a drink and bring it up while she gets into bed, we have a huge tantrum - 'I want to go downstairs'. If I put her into her bed she gets up and gets really angry, crying and shouting, stamping her feet etc. If I sit quietly with her, she'll eventually quieten down but as soon as I move, we're back to square 1. I've tried saying that I need to go and sort some washing out, but as soon as I'm done I'll come back and check on her, but that doesn't work. We have another meltdown and she screams that she wants mummy. If DH goes near her then he gets the same, that she wants me, although if he sticks with her he does seem to have more success than me because she calms down and accepts that its bedtime quicker with him than me - or that could be that she's so exhausted.
It is getting beyond a joke, it is past 10pm by the time she eventually falls asleep, sometimes as late as 11pm. She is awake at 7/7.30am most mornings and will sometimes (not always) have a nap for about an hour. This can sometimes be later than I would like, meaning that she is waking up for her tea, so then of course she isn't tired at bedtime, so if she hasn't napped by 3, I try to keep her going so that she doesn't fall asleep and is tired at bedtime - doesn't always work.
I know that its all change and that she's still getting used to Cameron being around. I'm thinking of altering our routine after the bath so that Cameron has his feed upstairs straight after the bath and then I put him down in his crib upstairs to sleep. I will then continue as before with Charlotte going downstairs for her story and milk and then toilet/teeth bed as usual. I hoping that as she sees Cameron is upstairs to sleep that she won't feel she is missing out on anything and that should help her to settle.
However, any suggestions of what you think I can do to get back on track would be gratefully received. I'm dreading tonight, (well I dread every bedtime at the moment), but this one in particular - I'm on my own as DH is out for the night (staying out overnight) and I'm not sure how I'm going to cope/handle this one on my own.
Thanks for reading, sorry it is such a long post!
