Let’s take a sec and talk about how much your child’s sleep schedule affects you. If my toddler doesn’t sleep well, or naps terribly, it can ruin my entire day. I live for naptime. Don’t get me wrong, I love playing with Bastian. But naptime is when I get stuff DONE. I rely on those hours during the day, and the hours right after he falls asleep, to really get things done. Not to be dramatic, but if he doesn’t nap, my whole day falls apart. So, our toddler sleep routine is really important to us! A little after his first birthday, his sleep patterns changed and we had to switch things up a bit.
Set up a routine
As I write this, I just finished spending an entire forty minutes getting Bastian down for his nap. And it was hard. Despite that, he(usually) has a really easy time going down for his nap and for bedtime. I think it’s important to say that he’s had a hard time in the last week, though. Even the babies with the smoothest and easiest sleep schedules go through rough patches and that’s NORMAL. You can’t expect your toddler or baby to sleep well ALL the time. Even though he’s struggling with his sleep lately, we have kept him on the same routine. Doesn’t matter what it is(although I’ll share what has worked for us), because keeping the routine consistent will help them fall back into that routine faster.
What our toddler sleep routine consists of
We follow the same sleep routine for both naps and bedtime, with a few exceptions.
We cuddle up on the corner of the couch with his blanket, and a sippy cup of milk. Then, we watch this dumb youtube lullaby video that for some reason works wonders on him. Once his cup is empty, I lay him in his bed, turn on his fan and sound machine, and walk out. Usually, that’s enough to put him down for about three hours, or a full nights sleep at night(unless he’s teething).
How to get your toddler to sleep later
I want to take a second to talk about the sound machine we use for Bastian. This is 0% sponsored, I just HAVE to share the good word. We use the Hatch Baby, and I love it. I would absolutely buy another one for our next baby and have two, that’s how much I love it. The best part of it, though, is a feature we just started using called the “OK to wake” feature. We have it set to change color at 7:15 every morning. It doesn’t wake him up, but if he wakes up and it is still orange, he knows it’s time to sleep. But if it is blue, he knows we’ll come and get him and it’s okay to wake up. It’s a really gentle alternative to an alarm clock, because I want him to sleep as long as possible every morning. For the most part, now, if he wakes up before 7, he’ll go back to sleep, or at least just play in his crib for a little while before we come and get him. It took about a month to get him used to how it works, but now it is the best part of our morning routine with him, haha.