Baths don't need to be at bedtime. We switched ours to showers around age 3. They shower every other day (except if messy, or usually daily in the summer), and they do it in our main level bathroom either before or after dinner -- the earlier the better.

Anonymous wrote:Don't be afraid of using a playpen. My 4 yr old wanted to get in, occasionally, to get away from baby sister. The four year old *wanted* to play without getting bothered. Wanted to play with some toys alone, or they weren't age appropriate yet for the baby.

And the reverse. Sometimes you just need to put the baby somewhere safe. Safe while you attend to the 4 yr old.

Bet I'll get flamed for mentioning a play pen, but mentioning anyway.

I used a pop n play for this. Faster to set up than a pack n play, and it just lived in the corner of our living room. Occasionally I put the youngest in it, but mostly the older 2 went in to get a break from each other or their brother. Now he’s two and can just climb right over the side, so that no longer works but it was great for a year or so. They’d color or do legos or play play dough in there for ages. I miss the peace.

Anonymous wrote:OP here - on the book routine in particular i'm loathe to combine them always because its currently kind of a magical time with my oldest who is usually a tornado of activity but during evening books / cuddles, he calms down and has very thoughtful conversations that wouldn't be possible with a little sib competing for attention. I guess I can always rotate who gets individual time vs budded up when they get older.

I have kids who were about the age gaps of yours OP. I would do the bedtime books/whatever for the 2 littles while the oldest was brushing his teeth/pj's. Then after the littles were down, I'd do bedtime with the oldest. So maybe 15 minutes later bedtime for him. Sometimes, we'd read on my bed, then ds would head to his bed for a quick kiss, to avoid waking the littles.

Anonymous wrote:How do I potty train while watching a baby?

Babies are easy. The real challenge is potty training that baby when you have a 4&6 year old teaming up to cause mayhem. Usually they are fighting, but sometimes it’s very quiet... 40% of the time when they are quiet it’s because they are doing something adorable and the older one is reading books to his brother. 40% of the time they are quiet because they are causing trouble and pulling all of the ashes out of the fire place. 20% of the time they are quiet because you have gotten so good at tuning them out that you don’t hear it...like people who live near a waterfall.

How do I potty train while watching a baby?

Anonymous wrote:My MIL had three with a DH who traveled. The kid in the bathtub had to sing. That’s how she knew they weren’t drowning. Meanwhile, she attended to the other ones. It was the 90s, so YMMV.

Ha, I did the same thing with my little sister (also in the 90s).

My MIL had three with a DH who traveled. The kid in the bathtub had to sing. That’s how she knew they weren’t drowning. Meanwhile, she attended to the other ones. It was the 90s, so YMMV.