Hellobee Boards

@cake2017: my kids are 4 and 6 now so I honestly don’t remember when we dropped the late afternoon nap BUT when my little one started needing to go to bed before my kid, I used to give the baby a bottle in a dark room with the white noise on while my toddler sat quietly by the room (with the hall lights on) and looked through some books with her own milk. It worked most of the time bc the toddler felt like we were all together and the dark/white noise combo was enough for the baby to not be super distracted.

@cake2017: not sure if it would help, but would a bottle help her be less distracted? Less work so maybe she could get it down more quickly? Annoying I know, but I did a tank up bottle for a long time at bedtime - I would just pump after kids were asleep (I hate the electric, I would manual pump while using haaka on the other side). Perhaps as a bonus you could get a little extra in her and get a bit longer sleep! You could even let toddler help hold the bottle while you read or whatever.

I’m not a great one to give advice on baby sleep, but I somehow survived lots of solo bedtimes so solidarity - it will get easier!

My 5.5 mo goes to bed about an hour and a half after his last nap. So if he wakes up at 6 I start his bedtime routine around 7:30. I am bfing right now but he gets a bottle before bed and then I pump later. This is prime distracted eating time and it’s so annoying. The bottle is easier and I can make sure he’s full.

I don’t do solo bed time often but when I do (I have a 4 yo and almost 2 yo) I will either put on a show for then to watch or they play in someone’s bedroom. My 2 yo understands that he’s supposed to leave me alone when I’m putting the baby to bed and for the most part he does but it’s hard sometimes. He’ll run in and distract everyone.

@cake2017: maybe keep her up later or cut her last nap off so she isn’t sleeping until 6 then you can put her to bed earlier. It’s hard at this age. I feel like every day our schedule is a little different.

OOoo this is so hard. My toddler also absolutely wouldn't self-entertain. I think you might be able to put the baby down after toddler goes down. They go to bed later I found those early months. Then you'd feel less stress about the 4:30 nap. they need a longer wake window too, try to make it around 2 hours after she wakes from last nap. We also did a 4:30 nap for months and he would still go down at 7:30/8.

Right there with ya. I usually do bedtime with the baby and my husband handles the three year old but when he's out of town it's chaos.

The only thing I've found that remotely works is sitting my oldest in front of the tv (not ideal) while I put the baby down. I also can't nurse in front of my oldest because the baby pops off every five seconds to look at her sister. Most of the time I just end up doing bedtime with DD1 first and then taking baby to bed a little later than normal. Sorry, I know this isn't helpful but I know the struggle!

@cake2017: I did a lot of solo bedtime when my DD2 was a baby and she would not nurse with DD1 in the room. I ended up putting DD1 to bed first, then the baby. That worked way better, especially because you can put the baby down on the floor/bouncy chair/whatever to attend to the toddler but it's harder to tell the toddler to sit still! Good luck!

@cake2017: We started involving DD2 in DD1s bedtime routine at probably 5-6 months. So she would lay on the bed or be on my lap or in a bouncy seat while DD1 was in her toddler bed and we would read (2 books) that way. I’m sure there was crying and my guess is we probably just ignored it and tried to get through the stories. As she got older though (like by 9 months) she was content.