success.

success people: a bedtime routine!!

desperate for sleep with a little monkey who decided around five months to STOP sleeping through the night, on 12/15/12 i started a dedicated bedtime routine.  i cancelled my evening plans for the week and decided that for ten days in a row only i was going to put him to bed, and we were going to do the same thing every single night at the same time.

i'll be honest, the first few days were MORE than rough.  for five nights in a row, he cried for up to 2 hours when i laid him in bed at 7pm sharp.  on day six he fell asleep easily, stayed asleep for twelve hours, and we haven't looked back since.  YAY!!!

his routine now is baby food at 6pm, bath at 6:30pm follwed by lotion & jammies & a six ounce bottle in the room with only a nightlight on.  he's laid in bed awake at 7pm.  he's usually asleep before i get downstairs to grab the monitor.  he now knows too that bedtime is coming, and starts rubbing his eyes as soon as i take him out of the bath:)

this mama is so happy i pushed through the first week or so though - and grateful for the support of kate who stayed at the house with me through all the crying and reminded me over & over again that i was doing what was best for him.  mike left for his deployment on 12/14 and i was delirious getting up several times a night with brady to give him his binky and knew that since he wasn't needing to eat in the middle of the night, it was just habitual waking.  so i pulled the trigger on the hard thing of letting him cry - but so glad he finally learned to fall asleep on his own & stay asleep.  and we are all so much more rested & happy now.