Brie and her firefighter husband Kevin show how their bedtime routine with three young kids changes depending on whether Kevin is home or working. When he's away, Brie handles bedtime solo, revealing practical strategies for managing multiple children at once.
You.
I'm excited to tell you that I have another day in the life for you today. Now this one's a little different. Bre and her husband Kevin show us their bedtime routine with a 6 year old, a 3 year old and a 10 week old. But I want you to keep watching because it gets interesting. Kevin is a firefighter in California. So three, four, sometimes more nights a week he's gone. And so what I want you to watch for is first how to set the bedtime routine and then watch how Bri does it when Kevin's gone. It's pretty amazing. I think you'll be impressed.
It's about 6:20 right now and the boys are outside playing with Daddy and we're gonna go upstairs and start our bedtime routine, which starts with a bath. Usually do baths about every other day unless the kids need it more. When my husband's home, I let him do the big kids and I do baby and we kind of tag team it that way. After we do our bath, my husband usually takes the older boys and he'll start their bedtime routine. He'll get them dressed, brush their teeth, start reading books. I usually take Teagan at that point and I get her dressed and then she's about ready for her nap. So usually after a good bath, she's pretty good and tired. That's about her maximum wake window there. So now she's just gonna start dozing off. I've got her in the other room and Daddy's doing bedtime with the boy. There's I can tickle. Hi. What's up there? What's up there? Grab it, grab it. A little after 7:30, just got the boys down. I'm going to start speed, clean as much as I can, get everything ready for tomorrow. Anything I need to do until Teagan wakes up and then we do her awake time before bed. So she just woke up and we came downstairs. She's eating right now. And then we'll do some awake time before we go upstairs and start her bedtime routine. It just got Teagan to bed, so now we are hanging out on the couch. Probably gonna catch up on a show or two and then go to bed. Good night.
Okay, now this is where we're gonna watch Brie do it solo. Kevin's gone, he's out fighting a fire. And Brie has three little ones to get down for bed. Look for the subtle changes that Brie makes her bedtime routine so that she can do it on her own. What you'll find is the heart of the bedtime routine is pretty much the same, but she's found ways to make it doable when it's just her.
Tonight I'm going to show you how I do bedtime when I have to do it alone with my three kids for myself. I've really found that it's easier to do baths before dinner, after dinner. Just gets kind of crazy trying to get the boys to bed. And, you know, with a little one, it's hard to know when they're going to be awake. And you have to time it just right, so. So it's just easier for me if I do it before dinner, anytime in the afternoon, really. It makes it a lot easier for me. I don't have to stress about it. It's not a rush. We can enjoy it. And it's good wake time for the little one. So it's a little after four, and I am just getting the stuff ready for their baths. Teagan is taking a nap right now, and as soon as she wakes up, I'll go ahead and throw them in the bath. One thing I like to do to help me get ready is I go and I grab all their clothes, anything that they'll wear when they get out of the bath. So I've got you their diapers and their pajamas, anything that they're going to need so that I never have to go running around looking for it when the time comes. Another thing I do to help us get ready for bath is I bring in this chair or anything that she can play in while I'm getting the boys into the bath. That way, you know, she has a safe space. Nobody's gonna step on her. She's. She's contained and she's happy because she's playing. So that works really well. And then I, you know, set out all of our towels here so that they're all ready to go when we get out. I never have to leave any of them to go get anything because it's all right here. All right, so it's time for us to start our bedtime routine. I. When I'm by myself, I like to wear the baby and kind of helps me so I have my arms free. I can help the other boys get ready. The other thing I like to do is I like to bring everything I need into my youngest kid's room because he goes bed first. So I have our toothbrushes ready to go. I have, you know, we've got the books right here. We don't have to leave until we actually, like, walk out and say Good night. We got the little guy to bed. Baby woke up, so now we're gonna read this guy books. He's gonna practice his reading, and then it'll be his time to go to bed. Brothers are asleep, so she's gonna do some awake time and have a feeding. And then we're gonna start our bedtime routine. So the kids are all asleep. And usually I use this time to catch up on any extra work or set things up for tomorrow if I haven't gotten to that yet. But tonight, I think I'm just gonna settle down and do some reading and relax.
