1 minute Bedtime Routine

Last night I was wondering how I got so lucky to have such a sweet, playful, and easy baby. I do realize that this could change at any moment, so I am relishing it.

Last night Adam and I got home from daycare/work at 5:30, and for 3 hours we played, ate dinner, giggled, and clapped at all the the things that I could do and all the things that he could do... we put on his pajamas, trimmed Adam's nails (his favorite thing) and played some more. All of a sudden it was 8:30 pm, Adam's bedtime, and he was wired and still happy from all the playing.

I scooped him up and Adam said good night to Dad... the whole time trying to flip himself upside-down and hang there, giggling. So I let him a couple of times and dangled him by the ankles and laughed with him. Shannon jokingly wished me good luck on getting him to calm down for bed. I figured it would be a little bit of a struggle myself, but we tried anyway.

I took Adam into his room, stood in front of the crib, and gave him a kiss. He smiled at me. I gave him his pacifier and he rolled his whole upper body over so I was cradling him. I gave him another kiss and put him in the crib.

I pulled his blanket up over him - he likes how the top of the blanket feels when it touches his cheeks. He put his hands on his cheeks, snuggled in the blanket, and smiled again, kinda giggled, then rolled over and went to sleep. 1 minute bedtime routine.

This isn't the first time we've had this experience - every night this week has been this easy. There are evenings where he'll whimper for a minute or three in his crib, but it's never a screaming fit or 20 minutes of crying. He definitely loves his crib and his room.

He is finally starting to sleep through the night - or at least not need a full meal during the night. Last night he woke up upset at 1:30 so I went in to see what was going on, gave him a sip of water, stroked his forehead and put him back to bed... and he slept until 7:30 this morning. But the night before that he slept all the way through, and has been for maybe a week now.

Playing with Adam after work and putting him to bed is so fun and easy that it makes me want to go get him out of bed so we can play some more. But I don't. I just look forward to the next day with him.