bedtime routines

It's been awhile, but I'm linking up again this week with Melissa over at Growing Up Geeky.  The topic this week is bedtime routines.  Hmm....

This is one of those deals where it's different with baby number two than it was with number one.  With Theo, we were always so good about bath, rocking chair, bottle, bed and all by a certain time.  With Dexter, it was all about not waking up Theo.  So we would hold him out on the couch while we watched television and rock him to sleep, then go lay him down.  We rocked him to sleep until he was over 8 months old.  I think we started laying Theo down awake around 6 months.

Things have changed as the boys have gotten older.  Their bedtime used to be a pretty strict 7:30, which was nice for me, since I have to leave for work at 9.  It gave me time to pack my lunch, watch one t.v. show on DVR and chit chat with my husband for a bit at the end of a long day. Well, the end of his long day and the beginning of mine, I suppose.

Theo has been staying up a little later... and even a little later than that lately.  Like getting in bed around 8:30. And lots of times, it's after he's watched one episode of Doodlebops.  I don't mind him watching 30 minutes or an hour of television every day, it kind of helps him unwind.  But I don't feel so proud of myself and I'd rather spend that time reading or playing with him.  But I still have to pack my lunch and clean up dinner or switch the laundry and get Dexter in bed and blah blah blah.  So our routine has been a little relaxed lately.  I must say though, he knows when we tell him it's time, it's time.

I grab his favorite blanket, "kanket," and carry him back to the bathroom to brush his teeth. He sits facing the mirror and I brush all those pesky dinner crumbs off his teeth.  If he wants to brush his teeth, I give him a couple minutes to do so.  Can't hurt, right?  Then I carry him to his room and hold him like a baby (which is getting pretty dang challenging at this point) for a minute or two before laying him in his crib.  Changes coming soon there, I think.  Maybe.

With Dexter, he starts showing signs of being ready for bed a little earlier. He gets fidgety and clingy and whiny. But you can't hold him when he's tired like that.  He must be afraid he'll fall asleep if he gets still.  So I sit in the rocking chair with him and he takes his last bottle of the day.  Sometimes he falls asleep as soon as it's gone, other times he thinks about fighting it.  Usually I can rock him for a few minutes, other days he won't let me.  So I put him in his bed and it's lights out.

Both boys are super easy to put down 99% of the time, for which we are very lucky and grateful.  Now if we could just get Dexter to sleep past 5am.  Eek.

~C~