Our Bedtime Routine

We have a baby. A baby baby, not a fake baby. (I know  a lady who calls a two year old a baby, and another one who thinks an 8 year old is still a baby. She really means it too.)

We follow the on-demand, attachment parenting style. When she cries for food, I feed her, even if she ate half an hour ago. If she needs to be held, I hold her. All day. And all night (it can be rough). Because that's what she needs.

But this does not stop us from having a bedtime routine. And a very strict, solid bed time. You see, even with the attachment, and on demand stuff we've got going on, I still think it's important to get your kiddos on a schedule. How we did this was watching for cues as to when Monkey is tired. Babies will usually get tired around the same time every day, and we set our schedule accordingly. She let us know when she needs bedtime, so we ran with it.

The Routine

Pajamas and Disposable Diaper

Read from Chapter Book (we are currently reading Goose Girl by Shannon Hale, a favorite of mine)

Nursing

Get in Sleep Sack 

Read, in the same order every night: 

Snuggle Puppy

The Going To Bed Book 

Night Night Forest Friends

Prayers

Lie in crib- sing You Are My Sunshine (sometimes)

Go to sleep (hopefully) 

No Bath? 

You will probably notice that bath is not part of the bedtime routine for us. Babies have very sensitive skin, and having a bath every night can do more harm than good, especially when they are newborns (less than 4 weeks old) if you or your spouse have sensitive skin as well. Since Monkey is not mobile, she doesn't roll around in dirt or get food all over her, we have no reason to bathe her every single night. So we don't. 

If it's a bath night, we do it before pajamas and diaper. Side note: we cloth diaper most of the time, so her getting a disposable and a change of clothes lets her know it's time to sleep. 

A Chapter Book at 4 months Old? 

Yes. While I was pregnant, I read chapter books out loud to the kiddos in my class at summer camp. I decided to keep it going with her after summer camp ended, and kept reading out loud to her, still in-utero, to finish up the book. I read scriptures out loud to her in the mornings too. 

The key to reading a chapter book out loud to your infant, is to follow their cues. Some times I get a paragraph out before she's done. Sometimes, I get two whole pages done. It's just a matter of what kind of mood Monkey is in. 

What is a Sleep Sack? 

It's... a sleeping bag for babies. Basically, it's a sack that zips up the front and has arms. This way baby can be warm, since you should not use blankets in a crib, and still have freedom to self soothe because they can move their arms and hands to get a binkie or suck their thumb. We only use ours for night time sleeping, not naps. This is just another way to cue our baby that it's night time and we expect her to sleep longer. 

The Same Three Books... Every Night? 

Again, yes. They are bedtime based books, so when she gets older she will understand what bedtime is, and why we read those books at bedtime. The same exact books, in the same exact order make the routine just that, Routine. She knows that when we pull out Snuggle Puppy it's almost time to get in the crib and sleep. 

If you think a few months old is too young to notice things like this, well, give it a try. I can tell you that on nights when Monkey is not very tired, the bedtime books come out and she freaks out because she does not want to go to bed!

Tummy Time from Day One

Tummy time. Some babies hate it, some just tolerate it. Mine, well, Monkey generally loves it. And I feel a reason she does is because we've been doing Tummy Time from the day we brought her home from the hospital.

What? From the day she came home? Yep. You see, I felt strongly that if we introduced her to things early, she wouldn't know to not like them. So, we started tummy time, among other things, the first few days and weeks of her life.

How did we do tummy time with a brand new baby? I'm about to tell you.

Typical Tummy Time

We did your typical tummy time, where we set Monkey on her tummy on the floor. But, we also lay down on the floor next to her. When she was too young to have head control, we would be sure to lay on the side that her head was turned to. As she gained more control, I would switch which side I was on so she could start to learn how to turn her head in a specific direction.

The key to this method when they are so young is to be right by them, and talking to them. Reassure them that you are right there, they are doing great, isn't this fun, you just lifted your head!, and so on. If Monkey is having a particularly difficult time (a little fussy), I will rest my hand on her back or stroke her hair. However, we do not force her to keep doing a session if she is distressed.

Now that she's older, I will place several toys within her reach, on the floor around her as we do tummy time. She likes looking at them, but has yet to reach for them since she's still figuring out what her arms are supposed to do while on her tummy.

Alternative Tummy Time for Newborns

This is a method we used when Monkey was less than a month old. After that we only did traditional tummy time.

One of us, usually my husband, would lay flat on our back on the floor. We then would let Monkey lay on her stomach, on top of us. So we are laying belly to belly, as pictured below.

This is what worked for us. She never fussed or got distressed when we did tummy time like this. Which makes a lot of sense, being so fresh from the womb where she hears my heartbeat all the time, this position allowed her for full body contact with us, hearing our heartbeats, and feeling us breathe.

Of course, this wasn't a a magical solution. She still has times where she is not going to have it with tummy time, but I feel like she does a lot better than she could be doing when I talk to other moms about how their babies cope with tummy time.

Try it out and let me know how it goes!