Our bedtime routine for Ace is one that we have worked on over the course of time and seems to work well for us so I figured I’d share.
The official trigger for the start of the routine is for Ace to take his last shot on his basketball rim. His dad says that he has to end the night on a made shot so Ace will either shoot it himself until he makes it or my husband will pick him up to dunk it.
Once the shot is made, we all head upstairs to continue the bedtime routine. My husband and Ace head to the bathroom to brush his teeth and use the potty while I stop in his room to turn on his humidifier and space heater and grab his clothes for the next day. We use this space heater because our house can get pretty chilly and Ace is still only using a thin wearable blanket in his crib.
I head to our room to dim the lights and wait for the guys. Buy the time my husband brings Ace in, the drowsiness has started to settle in. He knows at that point that any talking will be whispering only. We lay Ace down on our bed and I put on his cream to treat his eczema and then his pajamas and finally his wearable blanket.
I pick Ace up and he’s pretty much sleep at this point. I quietly rock him and remind him that he had a good day that day and all the things he did. Sometimes he’ll repeat me in confirmation, but usually he’s already out like a light.
After we’re done, my husband comes and picks Ace up and walks him to his room. They have their moment and he puts Ace in his crib. He turns on his sleep sounds. We use the Cloud B Giraffe and I love it because it’s a regular cadence, and it muffles the noise from us walking on our creaky floors while Ace is still drifting off. My husband slips out of his room and closes the door.
And just like that, 25 minutes later, the bedtime routine is complete. 9 times out of 10 it works like a charm. Every now and then, we have a slip up and Ace tries to finagle his way into our bed or the big comfy chair in his room. But we continue to the stick to the routine and it gets us back on track.