Moms, bedtime book?

NineTwentyOhEight · April 2012

Actually anyone if you remember a book that you loved to hear at bedtime. I want to start a routine with Ada and I don't really remember a bedtime specific book from my childhood. I don't think we did one. But I've heard reading the same book each night can help babes know it's time to sleep.

I am thinking of "On The Night You Were Born".

We've been doing "The Going to Bed Book" and "Goodnight Moon". But I don't love either.

SugarhillHnA · April 2012

We alternate books and when A reads to her, we have Spanish books that he reads that she has a couple favorites of but I couldn't tell you their names :P. Most of the books that I'm not partial to, she LOVES so I suck it up for her. Her latest favorite is The Very Hungry Catepillar. She also likes the two books you mentioned above. We typically read 2-3 books to her every night depending on how long they are and if she's going to bed late or not.

Others on her list of favs (not all are bed related):

Corduroy

Moo, Baa, La-la-la (she reads this one with me now!)

Pajama Time

Snuggle Puppy

I Love You Through and Through

10 Baby Kisses or something like that (it kisses body parts goodnight counting down from 10 and it really helped her learn her body parts quickly)

Bringing Home Baby and Waiting for Baby (to prepare her for 2.0's arrival)

cookiemonster03 · April 2012

Honestly? I find baby books so freaking boring. The only one that amuses me the Don't Let the Penguin Drive the Bus.

We have yet to make books a part of the bedtime routine. If we do bath and they're in good moods after getting their PJs on, sometimes we'll read one or two. I kind of figure we'll work it in in a more stable fashion when they no longer get a bottle right before bed (and I am in NO hurry to give this up, as bedtime is going well now and they usually sleep until 5 or 6).

ETA: someone told me "on the night you were born" makes them cry. I have icy veins I guess because I don't even like that one. We are starting to do the single word books (the book of blue with all blue objects etc) in some part because they're board books, theoretically good for vocab, and they are beginning to like to chew on them

Also I think any consistent routine is fine. I'd say 6 of 7 days they start clamoring for their bottles the second their PJs are zipped up. Heaven forbid it takes too long to get that sleep sack on. Only that 1 of 7 nights do they not end up instantly ready for bed at that point in the routine.

NineTwentyOhEight · April 2012

yeah, usually our routine is:

ada starts to melt down.

I say "I think it's bed time"

we go upstairs and I put her in a clean diaper and jammies.

I offer to nurse. sometimes she does, sometimes not.

she gets super fidgety and whiny if I try to rock her so I kiss her goodnight, put her in the crib and put the seahorse on. usually she falls asleep within 20 min.

I just like the idea of reading to her, she is starting to notice books more.

I read part of the night you were born book in Homegoods and almost cried. And I do have total ice veins, ask anyone.

mesa81 · April 2012

We alternate books... we do one exciting one and one mellow one.

PrettyInPearls23 · April 2012

Brody gets to pick 2 books for before bedtime. Last night it was "Elmo Goes Potty" and a toddler-friendly Bible. The night before it was a book about a wild horse and one that had all kinds of firetrucks in it.

mesa81 · April 2012

NineTwentyOhEight:
yeah, usually our routine is:
ada starts to melt down.
I say "I think it's bed time"
we go upstairs and I put her in a clean diaper and jammies.
I offer to nurse. sometimes she does, sometimes not.
she gets super fidgety and whiny if I try to rock her so I kiss her goodnight, put her in the crib and put the seahorse on. usually she falls asleep within 20 min.
I just like the idea of reading to her, she is starting to notice books more.
I read part of the night you were born book in Homegoods and almost cried. And I do have total ice veins, ask anyone.

Does she melt down around the same time every night? Once we figured out S's time she wanted to go to bed, I started bedtime routines 15-30 minutes before depending on baths. Even if she's not tired, I want to make sure we do the routines so that we get the book in before she is melting down too much (DH will say "she doesn't seem tired" but it's easier to get her prepped and ready vs doing it with a cranky/ tired child).

rcsbride · April 2012

I honestly didnt start reading to Dylan before bed until recently because he really wasn't interested but now I let him choose two books before laying him down. He has a basket full of books so i just let him choose whatever he wants. I don't really have a favorite book to read. I tend to like most children's books.

cookiemonster03 · April 2012

I agree with Magda re figure out her approximate bedtime. They were right around Ada's age when we started being consistent (it took a good month to get good at this too). We aren't clock watchers, and do bedtime anywhere from 6:45 to 7:30 (on the later end if they had a late nap, eg slept 30 min in the stroller at 5:30). We do bath (we used to only use soap every couple of days but now they're kind of dirty from food a lot of times), naked time/lotion/hairbrushing/teeth/playtime, diaper/jammies, bottles, bed. If there's been any eye rubbing or extra fussiness before we start, we do a really short bath. (We skip bath on pedi/PT nights or if we're out just prior to bedtime).

We try to put them down awake but they sometimes fall asleep on the bottle. If they're up, we've recently started putting them down sitting up and letting them put themselves to sleep which is awesome as it is helping naptime.

xojo1 · April 2012

cookiemonster03:
Honestly? I find baby books so freaking boring.

My friend who just had the baby told me this. They really want to read to him a lot because they both are big readers. So, she said that until he is old enough to really understand it, they are just going to read whatever they are reading at the time out loud to him. Last week, her husband was reading him Harry Potter (because we finally convinced him to read the series!) and Time magazine.

dafodils_lament · April 2012

I let Maddy pick out what book she'd like to read, some nights it ends up being a tongue twisting Dr. Suess and others its something like Rainbow Fish or Llama Llama. Most nights we'll get about 2/3rds of the way through one before she steals the book from me and starts flipping pages anyway.

firewife9278 · April 2012

I like these:

Anything Dr. Seuss. The singsong rhythm helps her sleep. One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish is my favorite at bedtime.

I Am Small. It makes me cry every time, but I love it. It also has shiny parts on the pages which she seems to like.

Corduroy.

Goodnight Moon.

Guess How Much I Love You.

We have a ton of books and we read to her all the time. I suppose I should get a couple French and Italian language ones that I can read to her so she can learn those too.

Moms, bedtime book?

Re: Moms, bedtime book?

2012 Reading Challenge

Choose Another Board

Search Boards