Bedtime with Two

Lluvia. (Rain in Spanish). Or if you’re Little Boy: yuya. It’s new; it’s fascinating; it’s slightly scary, but kind of fun.

Until the day we heard- boom! Little Boy had barely seen rain twice in recent memory (last rainy season he wasn’t even a year old) and he was already being introduced to thunder and lightning.

And this, of all days, was the day that I needed to put both kids to bed on my own. Fun!

Our Typical Bedtime Routine with Two Under Two

Normally, M and I do the bedtime routine together. M bathes Baby Brother while Little Boy and I clean up dinner.

Then I go nurse and put Baby Brother to bed, while M bathes Little Boy.

Then post pajamas and tooth-brushing I go put Little Boy to bed with a story and sometimes nursing. All this means that I could technically do it all myself except for that overlapping 45 minutes when I need to put Baby Brother to bed in a dark and quiet room.

Planning to put both kids to bed solo

The first time I had to do solo-bedtime I was rescued by a friend that came to play with Little Boy for a little while but this time I was not so lucky.

After mulling it over- I came up with a plan: We brought the video monitor to the living room, and I would leave Little Boy on the couch watching a movie while putting Baby Brother to bed. All in all it mostly turned out as planned!

Bedtime for Two under Two

Little Boy helped me to bathe Baby Brother. Then we went downstairs and TV ended up being a pretty good babysitter as Little Boy was excited for screen time for so long and so late in the day. I put it on pretty loudly to dull out the scary thunder sounds.

When the video ended and I was still a few minutes shy of swaddling Baby Brother, I got on the intercom and told Little Boy to hold tight. Needless to say that was some of the fastest swaddling I have ever done (and he might have been slightly freaked out).

Then I started bath time with Little Boy, teeth, nursing, stories, potty and bed. It took me about 50% longer than usual, so Little Boy went to bed a half hour late, but all things considered it wasn’t too bad (on his end).

I, on the other hand, was exhausted (but also feeling somewhat super-mom-ish), and the only real bummer was starting cleaning chores after 10 p.m.