Advice for Bed Time with Two!

I have three, ages 4, 2, and 3 months, and this is what we've been doing that seems to work well for us.

Eat at 5:30/6
Baths immediately following - I put the baby in a bouncy chair in the bathroom and feed him a bottle while i bathe the older 2
Put the older kids in pj's and let them play in their bedrooms while I bathe the baby
Swaddle the baby and put him in his swing or sway him to sleep and put him in his bassinett around 6:30/7.

I do all baths in the evening because I think they really are soothing ways to end the day.

After I put the baby to bed I do books and teeth brushing with the older kids and put them to bed. The older kids are usually in bed right around 7:30.

It seems a bit early to try to put the little one a schedule...UGH right?!!! But keep with the 2 year old's schedule, that is an age where they need and crave a set routine. I would give baby a bath anytime during the day...and infant does not get all germ and dirty like a toddler :) They can take baths anytime! It's all good mommy! Just take a breath and realize that you already did this with one, now you know what it is like and you can tweak this little one's schedule to try and fall (as closely as possible) to your toddlers schedule (except for bath, as that is fun for a 2 year old and just a little job for a newborn;) !!)
Good luck to you!!

It definitely is a lot of work with two little ones. This is how my husband and I do things most nights:

Dinner around 5:30/6
We do our boys baths every other night so one night it is our little guy and the next night is our 2-year old.
If it is baby's night, one of us goes up around 6:20ish and does his bath while the other finishes feeding/cleaning up 2-year old.
I also starting getting baby ready for bed by 6:30 ... I nursed him to sleep.
While I do that, husband is taking care of 2-year old ... he does potty, brush teeth, and then bath if it is his night.
Usually by the time 2-year old gets up to his bedroom, I'm dome getting little one down to bed and we start 2-year's bedtime routine.
Both are (on good nights) asleep by 8:30 at the latest so husband and I have some quiet, relaxing time for ourselves :)

I hope our routine can help you out. You just have to try different things until you find the schedule that works best for your family. Good luck and enjoy having two beautiful children :)

I have a two year old and a six week old also. The 2 year old goes to bed at 7:30. We start our bed time routine around 7. In the summer he has been taking longer to fall asleep but we still do the same thing and expect him in bed by 7:30. The six week old does what he wants. Typically he takes his last feeding around 9:30-10:30 and then wakes up around 3:00 am. I don't bath him every day though. We just take it day by day and the little one does his own thing.

I am big on schedules but not at this age.

When my 2nd child, my son, was a baby, he napped a lot.
My daughter, the older one, went to bed same time as your older child.
My kids are 4 years apart.

I would put my son to bed, per his cues and per my knowing him.
A baby/infant, will nap, get sleepy earlier. So then put baby to sleep.
When baby is tired.
You/Husband/Older child, can eat dinner. Baby can be sleeping at this time. Already.

In other words, go about your day, but put baby to nap when baby needs to nap. Baby is only 6 weeks old. So you have to go by baby's cues. For naps/sleep/bedtime.
Not going according to the older child's sleep times.

Eventually, once baby is older, you can synchronize your baby and the older child's naps to be at the same time. For the afternoon naps. That is what I did with both my kids. They both napped, for the afternoon nap, at the same time.

you can bathe baby in the morning.
Or make bath time EARLIER. That is what I would do.
Infants also do not 'have to' take baths everyday. It dries out their skin/hair.

For now, the bedtime ritual, needs to be different for baby and older child. They have different timelines of sleepiness and needs for sleep times.

When I had my son my daughter was 2. I did my best to keep her on her schedule. The baby had so many different schedules at a young age to keep up with and it will change often. It wasn't until he was closer to 1 that I was able to get them to bed at the same time. Having 2 little ones it tough, but you can make it.

this is a tough age stage...my oldest was 2 in March of this year and I have 7 month old twins...they are only 20 months younger than big brother....talk about hectic..LOL. i agree that you should let the baby kinda take the lead as far as nap and bedtime and just keep the schedule of your older child. we put the twins crib in the living room, we have a TINY house so that way while they were still waking up at night they dont wake up big brother. but we are going to be putting them in brothers room soon since they have been sleeping through the night for about 4 months now....if your kiddo's are sharing a room, maybe have baby nap in a bassinet or pack-n-play in another room so that way your older kiddo has a special night time with mom and dad....i dont know, just be patient and dont worry if it takes a while to get it all figured out, it took me about 2 months before i even felt like i wasnt totally losing it...LOL

When my 2nd arrived , I kept my 2 year olds schedule the same. In the evening, most nights we sould spend one on one time with my 2 year old. Bathing, reading, playing a quiet game before bed. I did this to ensure he felt no resentment towards the baby since he had to now share me during the day. From day one I would lay the baby down at 6:30 pm (luckily she didn't mind) and my husband and I would spend 6:30-7:30/8pm with our son. Some nights with both of us, some nights just one of us. This worked extremely well. Then later when baby woke for a feeding big brother was already sound asleep. When baby woke later she had us all to her self too until she went down for night.
Good Luck, you will find what works best for you.