Our friends who have a baby they also blog about stole our idea about a post with baby nicknames we use. So we are stealing their post idea about our night time routine. Seems like a good idea to tell of some things we do instead of just posting pictures.
Attison's bedtime was consistently 8 pm for many weeks. As his sleeping times got longer, the number of times he woke up got smaller and my ability to remember things has gotten stronger. For almost two weeks he has been only waking up once per night. One night he slept for 9 consecutive hours!!
I thought if I moved bedtime to 9 that might give me one more hour of sleep (ie. He sleeps from 8-1, I sleep from 10-1. New pattern: he sleeps 9-2, I sleep 10-2). This plan worked. But then...last night he fell asleep snuggling a roommate while we watched a movie. At 10:15 ish he woke up and was hungry, needed a diaper change and pajamas. He was really upset with all of that ruckus and proceeded to wake up 3 more times before finally waking up for good at 7. Tonight we moved back to 8 pm and so far so good....
1. From approximately 6-7:30 (and when I say approximately, I really mean it) Attison is usually awake and happy. He is pretty vocal, cooing and laughing, flirting with anyone who looks his direction. He tends to be ok laying down, playing with toys, being held, whatever. Around 7:30 he starts to get a little fussy, indicating that he is starting to wear out.
2. If it is a bath night (which is every 2-3 days, depending on his last poop, which always seem to be massive blow outs requiring immediate baths) we start bath time around 7:30. Attison's buddy Elliot is letting him borrow his baby bath, which as of this morning ('s massive poop blow out) we transitioned to instead of the sink puj tub. Attison still loves bath time. I really can't wait until he can play with toys, it's going to be the best part of the day :)
3. After bath we put on our "night time diaper" which consists of two pocket inserts and one more liner outside of the pocket in one of our Bum Genius pocket diapers. No more night time diaper changes! With a baby that only wakes up once, I was finding the middle of the night diaper to be relatively dry and the act of changing said diaper to be disturbing to everyone. (A cried, I have to open my eyes, T wakes up and JTD comes to investigate) Next is pj's and a swaddler.
4. I turn off all the lights, nurse the baby, rock in the glider and sing lullaby's to my boy until he falls asleep. I'm still having trouble remembering lyrics so I tend to sing the same songs every night: Goodnight my Someone (from The Music Man), Edelweiss (Sound of Music), Lullaby (Dixie Chicks), A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes, You are My Sunshine and When You Wish Upon a Star. If I notice that Attison is playing or not easily going to sleep, I stop singing and just be quiet. Our pediatrician said that night time feedings should be dark and quiet to help the baby distinguish between day and night.
5. Into the bassinet with sleeping baby! Since our house is real cold, we have a thermostatically controlled space heater in our room I turn to 65. I turn on the monitor to go downstairs and party! Or workout, if I haven't yet that day. Or shower, fold laundry, clean, type inspection reports, play with knives - things I can't do with a baby who wants attention.
6. Then sometimes he wakes up. 99% of the time all it take is the soothing vibrations on the bassinet and the binkey. Sometimes I'll wait. He'll suck real hard on the binkey like 12 times, spit it out and be back asleep. The key is remembering to go back up after 45-60 minutes to turn off the vibration thing. Batteries are expensive. If those things don't do the trick, we go back to #4, but spend more time rocking in silence.
All told, this kid sleeps pretty well. I appreciate it every single night. At Mom's coffee everyone always says: you can't even think about a "schedule" before 6 months. Just when things seem to settle down, you hit a new milestone and everything changes. Here's to tonight!
