Friday

I know that a bedtime routine is a big issue with parents and babies, so in order to remember ours I am going to document it today.

Bath time is at 7:00, but there are days that we may not take a bath, so this is not a consistent part of the routine. However, now that he is starting to want to eat with his hands, he gets a lot messier during the day, so I think bath will become part of the routine every night.

Starting anywhere between 7:15 and 7:45 (depending on when he starts showing signs of being tired) Daddy takes John up to the nursery and reads him a story. At this point the story is more of a "trigger" than anything else, as all he wants to do is eat the pages (we stick to the books with hard pages). After story time, Daddy changes his diaper and rubs him down with lotion and then puts him in his PJ's. The final part of Dad's duty is saying goodnight to Raul. This is the spider monkey that hangs on the corner of the armoire in John's nursery. We are not sure how this started, but every night John looks up he direction to say goodnight, so we continue it.

Dad hands him off to me and turns out the light. I have already started the sound machine which plays "night" noises and I am sitting ready with boppy in hand. While John eats, I say my goodnight prayer and thank the Lord for the miracle and blessing in our lives; and ask for strength and guidance in raising him. After he is done, he is usually asleep or close to it. I put him on my shoulder and rock or walk around with him for a minute or two and then I put him on his belly in his crib. And that is typically all, it is a rare night if he wakes up enough that we have to go back in there and help him to sleep again.

Our day:

5:00 - wake up to eat, will not go back down, I finally leave him in his crib around 6:00 and go back to bed, it took him about 10 minutes and he was out again.
8:00 - wake up to start the day
8:15 - solid breakfast (apple cinnamon oatmeal and oatmeal cereal) and high chair time
8:45 - play
9:30 - eat
9:45 - story and nap
11:00 - house cleaners are here and making a lot of noise
11:15 - wake up
11:30 - run errands and meet Daddy for lunch at Texadelphia
1:30 - Play
2:15 - Nap
3:00 - Play
3:30 - more play time with Dad while I go to the store
4:45 - eat and fall asleep
5:30 - wake up and play
6:00 - Dinner (just rice and goldfish as is stomach seemed to be bothering hm)
6:30 - Play with me while Carl went to the store
7:15 - bath
7:30 - Start bedtime routine
8:00 - sound asleep