Our Favorite Bedtime Books For A Snuggly Bedtime Routine

Before we get into the actual list of books to read at bedtime with your baby or toddler, let’s talk about why it’s important and how to add it to your nighttime routine! Maybe you think “great! One more thing to add to to the chaos of bed!” That’s what we are trying to avoid! It’s easy and once you make it a habit it will be so second nature.

Why reading to your baby/toddler before bed is so important?

There are so many important reasons/benefits to reading to your child in general that are backed by science and that obviously factor into why it is so important for reading to be part of your bedtime ritual as well as your daily life.  All of those reasons apply here!

But some of the reasons I’ve found it is so important for both Riley AND me as a parent are just based on how it makes us feel (though science probably TOTALLY could back it all up):

1. Connection & Cuddles: Whether she sits on my lap or cuddles up next to me, it soothes me even on the most stressful of days and I know it does the same for her. I love being intentional about connecting at the end of our day — especially on days where I feel like I’ve been distracted or maybe we had a really hard day. I love her going to bed on a good note doing something we both enjoy so much. I always feel such a strong bond no matter how much of a crap mom I felt like that day for whatever reason.

2. It’s such a calming way to wind down: I can’t imagine just abruptly ending our day without having some buffer time to really wind down. I find that, for whatever reason, if we tried to skip the book portion and just do bath/jammies/teeth that she is always a bit more hyper going down. I like that she is adaptable enough if we come home super late that she’s okay with skipping books but I like that we have that extra mellowing out time. Sure, sometimes we get silly now when we read now that she’s a toddler but overall it’s such a good wind-down activity.

3. It’s built-in reading time: For as much time as Riley and I spend reading outside of bedtime reading, there are some days when we are just so busy and active that we don’t read ANY books until that time. It’s important to read daily so I love knowing that no matter how the day goes — we have that. We read, right now, 5 books every night which is 1,825 books a year. I love knowing that I’m setting aside that time and she expects it so it keeps me accountable.

How To Add Reading Books To Your Little One’s Bedtime Routine + General Tips

Decide what you want your general bedtime to routine to look like if you don’t already have one. That’s the most important step is to making a bedtime routine that works for YOUR family and what you can conceivably do. Here are some examples from what our various routines looked like as a baby and toddler:

As a toddler: Bath (every other day at this point), teeth, brush hair, jammies, sleep sack, jumps into our bed and read 5 books, sip of water, kisses the dog, kisses us and then off to bed with a song and kiss.

We have always allotted around 30 minutes for ours because that works for us. As a baby the bottle part took the longest time, bath was shorter and the board books we read were way shorter. Now as a toddler bath and books are both longer but still equal around 30 minutes because we don’t have the bottle obviously.

Once you get your general routine down:

Decide WHEN you want the book portion of your bedtime ritual. We liked for it to be last thing we do but maybe it works better for you to do books first and bath/jammies last because THAT soothes them the most.

Decide how many books/how long you want to read for. Reading is one of my greatest passions so for me I will always have reading our books be a really long portion of our bedtime routine. We also only have one kid so we aren’t juggling multiple bedtimes. Maybe you do one book at night, maybe you do 5. Whatever works for your family and is reasonable FOR YOU. We are less busy these days so we can have a longer allotted time for it.

Decide on where you are going to read. Since we moved to our house we all pile into our bed and then she goes to her room to sleep. Maybe the transition is easier for you to read in your child’s room.

Start small & adapt: If it’s new, start small. See how long it takes. Make adjustments. BUT STICK WITH IT. I promise it will get easier to carve out the time once you just do it. We start our bedtime routine earlier to allot for all that reading time. It should be soothing — not a stressor — so only do what helps your night flow better. ALSO, as they get older your routine will change a little and adapt. When we read longer books I decrease the amount we are reading.

Mix it up: I try to add a mix of longer and shorter books for attention sake. I also always have a favorite book or two in the mix each time and then add in some that we don’t read as often or library books we are trying out since I’m ALWAYS looking for new books to read at bedtime. I also have a weekly rotation of about 8 books and we mix and match it up every night for a week and then I start the week with a new selection.

Know what books work: Riley doesn’t get too wound up when we read silly or fun books but your kid might need soothing, calming books at bed to keep the mood low key. When she was a baby and started getting her preferences, she only wanted her FAVORITE books so I just stuck to those until she seemed more open to other ones or she would cry. 

If it’s becoming a fight, figure out why: Maybe they are too tired that night, maybe they don’t like the book you are reading, maybe they want to flip through a book themselves while you read (now, at 2, Riley straights up “reads outloud” her book while I’m reading a book and pays attention to both LET ME TELL YOU god forbid I skip a page), maybe they want to pick out the books, maybe they want the SAME book read 5 times instead of the 4 different ones. THESE ARE ALL THINGS THAT HAVE CAUSED PROBLEMS FOR US but I was able to figure out that’s why she was tantrum-ing or resisting and figured out how we can solve it. I pick my battles.