When I tell people that my daughter (22 months) is in bed every night by 5:45 PM and sleeps through the night, they look at me in awe. Apparently this is not common and most people think I am either lying, or that my daughter wakes up at like 3:00 AM. But, the fact of the matter is that my daughter goes to bed between 5:30 PM and 6:00 PM every night. She sleeps soundly until 6:00 AM when we all wake up to begin our day- we drop her off at the sitter at 7:00 PM. Yes, she gets 12 hours of sleep at night and maybe a 2 hour nap during the day. According to this site on average, 2 year olds need between 11.5-15.5 hours of sleep a day, so we are good.

But how do we make sure she goes to sleep? Part of it has to do with the fact that we were blessed with a very good sleeper. She has never really had a problem sleeping. The other part has to do with being VERY in synch with her emotional cues. I learned very early that she becomes a bit of a handful between 6:00 - 7:00 PM. She would get defiant and cranky because she was tired. So, rather than waiting for this to happen, I decided to bypass it all together by putting her to sleep BEFORE the witching hour begins.

Our bedtime routine is nothing too elaborate. I don’t bath her every night before bed. Sometimes I read her a story; but sometimes I don’t. But one thing remains consistent: we begin to wind down with music or just cuddling 20 minutes before bed. Then she gets a bottle, is changed and then put in the crib. We turn her stereo on to lullabyes and that’s it. It is quick, painless, and consistent. In fact, now that she can walk and talk a little, she takes us to the fridge to get milk, and then walks me to her room and says “night-night”.

I know that I am lucky. I know that for some babies, schedules mean nothing. However, I am a firm believer that babies get confused without routine. They need to know what to expect or they don’t know how to react. Despite all the warnings that we received about putting her to bed too early, we figured out what works. Every one says that MiMi is always so happy. I think it is because she is well-rested and not forced to endure my nightly whims: like going out to eat or going to the movies.

Tags: mothers, parenthood