Bedtime Routine

Before Robby was born, I read Babywise.  It was the only sleep training book I read in preparation for his arrival. I had talked to several people who had used the methods with their children and they had nothing but success, so I knew that's what I wanted to do.  One of the things discussed is to not to let your baby fall asleep for the night right after or while taking a bottle/nursing.  It stressed the importance of a bedtime routine but also stressed that if a baby is put to sleep by a bottle as an infant, they will have a hard time later on when you try to stop.  When Robby was on his 3 hour sleep, eat, play routine, it was easy to make sure he didn't get his bottle right before bed.  But once he started stretching his feedings out to 4-5 hours, it ended up that his last bottle was right after bath time and right before bedtime.  I didn't want him to come to expect a bottle as part of his bedtime routine each night, so this week we have been working on a different one.  I either feed him his last bottle or food before his bath, then Tim gives him his bath which lasts about 30 minutes since he loves to play and splash for a while.  After he gets Robby out of the tub, they snuggle with him in his towel for a bit, then put his diaper and jammies on him.  The main difference is Tim started reading him a bedtime book right before bed.  Up until now, anytime I would read a book to Robby, he wouldn't pay attention or would be more interested in putting it in his mouth.  I was amazed at how well he paid attention and focused on what Tim was saying and looked at the pictures on the pages.  I got some good pictures from the bedtime readings a couple of nights.

This video was taken after Tim read to Robby.  He has a stuffed monkey we put him to bed with, even though he doesn't actually cuddle him when he sleeps.  It was just so cute how much Robby laughed when Tim would make the monkey noises!