Adalyn's Bedtime Routine

Addie has finally turned the corner and is sleeping approximately 10 hours every night.  It's amazing!  If only I could get her to sleep until 7, we'd be in perfect shape.  She gets a bath every other night so as not to dry her skin out and she's not crawling around in the dirt all day so she's not that dirty.  Our bedtime routine goes something like this:

7:30 - Addie starts to get really cranky and it signals that it's time to start the bedtime routine.

7:45 (on bath nights) - We asked if she wants a bath, she immediately stops what she's doing, looks up and says, "Ba!".  Then runs down the hallway to the bathroom where she proceeds to stand at the door and beat on the door and whine.

7:47 - we strip her down and put her in the tub where she proceeds to drink the water, lay down and splash, throw her toys out of the tub, and play the stand up/sit down game.  This is a game to her, not to me.  She stands up with a troublesome grin on her face and I tell her to sit down (because I know she'll fall at some point).  She squats for a second, then immediately shoots back up and starts cheesin.

8:00 - bath time is over and we take her to her room to put on the night diaper, PJs, lotion, brush her teeth, then let her brush her own teeth while I comb her hair.

8:10 - we sit in the living room on the couch and she drinks her bottle and plays with her hair to wind down.

8:20 - she's finished her bottle and we go into her room and sit down and read for 15 minutes.  Lately she's been in this routine where she only wants me to read her Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss.  It's really cute how excited she gets, but seriously, how many times can I say, "No Pat no, don't sit on that"?!

8:35 - I turn on the white noise machine and let her listen to the ocean as she falls asleep.  She goes down with her Fisher Price Seahorse and a book.

8:40 - on a good night, she's already asleep at this point.  On a bad night, she's begun her meltdown and could cry for 20 minutes.  Occasionally I cave and snuggle her in the glider and we glide for a few minutes until she's asleep.  I know I have to stop this, but it's my favorite thing to do with her since I only get to do it sporadically.

-stephanie