Bedtime routine

Avril

She should be ready to go to bed around 7:30 but your best bet may be to do it after Alice is in bed so 8:00pm.

  • Make 5 ounce bottle.
  • Change diaper.
  • Put on foot pajamas.
  • Put on sleep sack.
  • Feed bottle with lights dimmed in the nursery.
  • She should basically fall asleep will eating.
    • If not, 10 minutes of rhythmic bouncing/rocking while standing should knock her out.
    • If she is really distressed (pretty rare!) then leave the nursery, go to main level of the house, or even outside to reset.
    • And sometime she just wants to stay up!
    • If you want to let her cry moderately for 5-10 minutes that is fine too.  About 50% of the time she will fall asleep on her own then.  And almost always falls asleep if you calm and give a little more bottle after that crying.
  • If she falls asleep while eating, hold her upright on your shoulder for a minute before putting her in bed so that she can burp.
  • Put her face down with feet kind of in one corner so that she has a little room to crawl forwards before hitting something.
  • Make sure the crib side is up.  It squeaks a little but she usually doesn't care.

Alice

A thorough documentation of bedtime habits lately.  Probably very little of it is necessary as she really does go to bed pretty well.  Some of it is cute and some of it is ridiculous--choose your own adventure!

  1. "Do you need to use the bathroom?"
  2. 7:40pm: "In a couple minutes we will go upstairs to brush teeth, read books, and go to bed."
  3. "OK it is time to go upstairs..."
  4. Put pajamas on.
  5. Brush teeth
    1. Toothbrush and toothpaste in top right drawer in bathroom.
    2. "Would you like to sit on the toilet or stool?"
    3. Lately she sits with mouth open and asks for us to brush, which is fine.
    4. Then I hold her over the sink so she can rinse and put away the toothbrush.
  6. Back to the bedroom to set the mood for reading
    1. I turn on the cow light.
    2. Alice turns on the duck light.
    3. Alice turns on the sound machine.  Touch sensitive metal ring on the top of it...short tap turns it on to setting one which is what she likes.  A long hold turns if off.  She usually ends up doing both for some reason but eventually gets it.
    4. I turn off the room lights and close the closet door (spy cam won't see much if closet door is not closed)
    5. She gets upset about things out of order like clothes on the floor.  A heap on the little chair is OK though!
  7. Read a few books while sitting in the big chair with her on your lap, by the light of the cow. :)
  8. If she negotiates hard (aka fake crying) for one more book she can pick one out to read tomorrow, which then lays flat on the shelf in front of the other books.
  9. Alice turns off the duck light and cow light.  Can have hall light on and door open so you can still see.
  10. Ensure two Winnie flat dolls and one little "baby doll" are where her chest will go ("OK here's your two Winnies and baby doll"), then lift her up and "plop" her down right there.  Lately she has been wanting more of a "launch" where you pick her up on one side of the room and fly her across the room to her bed.
  11. Tuck in sides and feet with small quilt and lay other little blanket over feet/legs.
  12. Say goodnight, and she likes to give a kiss on the cheek.  Then she will start babbling softly, "alarm music goes off, clock makes noise, baby monitor talking at you, etc."  Just keep agreeing/good-nighting and close the door.
  13. She may start crying about something and so far it has been mostly legit concerns--not just delaying bedtime unreasonably.  Winnie falls on the floor, hangnail, etc.  So feel free to go in and see what the problem is.