Archived Forums

Abolutely no experience at all but just a thought...keep the bedtime as it is for the two older children and put baby to bed earlier? I suppose that depends on current routines in fc but you could juggle things to slowly move your older ones back a bit or the babies a bit earlier. It may be comforting for them to try to keep their bedtime routine the same with all the huge changes going on and they will get a bit of time on their own with you. Xx

I agree with wig, although we don't have any experience either I'm afraid. But friends who have children with quite a large gap always stagger bedtimes. One assumes the little one earlier but keep to what the foster carer did time wise (with both nap and bedtime) and then if you need to, adjust both bedtimes just enough so you do one after another.

My boys were 5 and 2 when our daughter was placed at 12 months. And bedtimes were hard going, partly because at the time dh worked away a lot and I had to do it single handed. Middly was too young to be left safely and too disruptive to be in littlys bedroom. Assuming there'll be two of you it'll be easier. One to do bedtime - earlier presumably - with baby while the other entertains, provides milk, cuddles story time with the other two. We stagger bedtimes here - pretty much always have. Gives each child individual time - sharing story time etc has never worked. They like that one to one. You'll find a way that works - I'd keep the elder two's routine as same as possible but then accept that as they get older it'll probably need to be tweaked anyway. Best of luck! Am so glad mine are now a little older!

No solid advice but wishing you lots of luck! We adopter our three together aged 6, 4 and 3 - tidying out recently I found a note pad on which we'd tried to write down our perfect bedtime routine - we never found it! But the advice you've been given about trying to keep things as similar as possible sounds sensible. And if needs be if you're having to do it single handed leave the elder two in front of a DVD a little longer whilst you settle the baby, rather than try to put them all down together. LB PS I love Shaun the sheep!

We had two adopted boys, then, when they were 7 and 5, we had a baby. We kept the boys' routine exactly as it was and put the baby to bed later. That meant the older two weren't hanging around waiting for me to settle the baby. But, I do think try to keep what's working going and be as relaxed as you can. It may take a long time to get new baby into a settled routine. Try not to worry.

Thanks everyone. We halfway through intros now - going well overall, but also getting to that point where everyone's feeling exhausted, and FC emotions are starting to impact. It's so hard for everyone ! Will definately try to keep biggies bedtime routine as it is - they're already acting up a little just with the tension of intros and change, so need the routine. LO will probably go to sleep earlier (we'll divide and conquer) but we'll just have to see what works. Eek...just a few more days to go until it becomes reality !!! :-)