Oh bedtime. Why oh why must it be so difficult? Why do our children torture us every night, looking so cute during the day and then waking up like evil monsters in the middle of the night wanting to destroy the sleep we cling so tight to? Why does it take SOOO long to get them to go to sleep? Recently I had enough and implemented a new bedtime routine for my 4 year old which I'm sharing with you today!

This post is sponsored by Sengled but all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Bedtime wasn't always a struggle with my oldest son, Turner, until he transitioned to a twin bed at 3 years old.

I took him from a crib to a twin bed in one day, and attached a side rail so he wouldn't fall out. The first few weeks went great but over time he began to leave his bed more and more. He would leave after we put him down and he would leave in the middle of the night and sneak in to our room and scare the living crap out of me. It doesn't help that I also have almost 2 year old twins also waking me up in the middle of the night.


I'm going to admit our bedtime routine stunk, and we still fail. From 5-8pm I'm running around the house feeding, playing with and bathing my kids. My first priority is to get Walt and Whitney, my 19 month old twins, to sleep. Once they are down (hopefully by 7:30pm) I'm spent. I'm extremely exhausted and the last thing I want to do is start the process ALL over again with my 4 year old. So, I would hand him the iPad and let him gaze off into cartoon la la land while I relaxed on the couch. Sometimes I would watch a show and blog or I would clean up my kitchen and living room that looked like a tornado hit.



The problem was Turner had terrible mornings, and was always a complete nightmare to get out of bed and get ready for school. I knew we needed to make a change so we started a new bedtime routine.

LESS SCREEN TIME
We try our best to limit screen time to 30-45 minutes. When he gets home he always requests to watch the iPad, but I make him go outside and play or help us prep dinner in the kitchen.

START EARLY
I knew the biggest issue was the amount of hours he slept. He usually wouldn't be completely asleep till 9:30/10pm, so we started getting him ready for bed earlier. Our new start time is at 8pm. Does anyone else's child move as slow as molasses when bedtime hits?! Oh my goodness my child is slow. It can seriously take him 30 minutes and longer to put on his pajamas, brush his teeth and use the restroom. I'm usually in the background saying "C'mon. Hurry up Turner."

BETTER LIGHT
Turner constantly complains about being scared of his bed and room. I bought a bunk bed for him 2 years ago and he hated it so we finally took it down. He was back to a twin bed but still complaining of being scared of the dark. He hates sleeping alone. We implemented a few new things. 1.) We put a Sengled Twilight LED bulb inside the lamp on his dresser which we all love because after the power switch is turned off an additional 15 seconds of dimmed light stays on. The courtesy delay provides a calming transition to bedtime for Turner. 2.) We put in a string of lights above his bed just in case he wants more light to fall asleep.  I make sure the string of lights are off once he's actually asleep because they are pretty bright and I don't want it to mess with his melatonin/sleeping patterns.

*He used to sleep with a sound machine till he was 4, but I took it away being worried that he would never be able to fall asleep without it. I turn on the fan in his room to make a bit of noise. Does your child sleep with a noise machine?*



CHECK BACK IN
I always let Turner pick out 2-3 of his favorite books and after I read I'll either sing him a song (You are my sunshine) and rub his back or pray. After a couple of minutes I leave the room and let him know I'll come back and check on him. He always tells me to come back in 2 minutes. Sometimes if I take too long to come back he'll get out of his bed, sometimes he falls asleep. It's hit or miss. It's definitely not the easiest bedtime routine but it works for us.

Now I want to know. What is your toddler's bedtime routine?! I am open to ANY tips to making the process easier. Soon I'll have TWO toddlers to put to sleep! Lord help me. 

P.S. We also put in Sengled Pulse light bulbs in our living room and they have been a GAME CHANGER! Pulse turns any light socket in to your own personal sound system, and you control it all from your phone. We've been having daily dance parties ever since!