Bedtime Routines

PowerLaunch recently posted about The Power of Routines, including a poignant passage about the power of a bedtime routine.

Our youngest is a great sleeper. People always comment on how he goes straight to sleep when we put him down. This usually happens even when we are in a new environment like visiting in someone else's home. What he has is a bedtime routine that has been the same from about two months old until the present time, twenty-three months old. That is twenty-one months of the same routine for each nap and each bedtime. If I did my math correctly, that is over 1,600 occurrences of the same ritual.

We do a bath every other day, followed by diaper and pajamas, followed by tooth brushing and flossing, followed by zero to three bedtime books (depending on the day). Then he has the same lullaby sung to him and he is laid down on his bed with the same litany describing his bedtime objects. His music box is then turned on and I say the very same good night message to him.

Any bedtime routine that includes healthy wind-down activities and an expression of love is a fantastic bedtime routine.

What is your child's or children's bedtime routine?