Oh geeze, if anyone should be a champion of the bedtime routine it should be me, but well, I am not. Not even close. Eyan sucked at the schedule and routine thing. He did what he wanted when he wanted and 2 years later that is still the case. It is a well-known fact that my precious baby boy did NOT sleep, no naps, no continuous 3 hour stretches of sleep, no anything. He just wanted to enjoy every moment of awake time he could and he did…for 13 months.
I tried EVERYTHING…most of all the bedtime routine. Here is how that situation went:
- Bath Eyan with the Johnson and Johnson lavender soap
- Use the J&J lavender lotion and put socks on his feet (because I heard somewhere that if their feet get cold they wake up)
- Put him in his PJ’s
- Read 5 small books
- Sit in the rocker and nurse him until he fell asleep (don’t judge when you haven’t slept for 6 months if this is what works, you do it)
- Turn on the sound machine & night light
- Put him in his bassinet and sleep next to him.
Over the next few months this routine changed several times and I do not remember all those variations, but I do know that for close to 9 months now, I have done the same thing with Eyan every night.
- Bath every other night (he gets a bath every day at grandmas)
- PJ’s (at this point he decides what he is wearing to bed)
- Milk in a sippy cup
- Eyan in his crib, cover him up, give him milk
- Turn on sound machine and night light
- Tell him I love him and say a prayer
- Walk out
It works…I don’t know why or how, but it works and I am finally sleeping! yeah us! Sleeping! He still wakes up probably 3 times a week but its better than the 5-7 we were doing a year ago.
