Happy Bedtimes Are Best

I'm finding the best time to write is between bedtimes.  As long as Patrick is home too, otherwise forget about taking 10 minutes for myself!  Rose starts her bedtime at 7 or so, and if she's having a good night we're done by 7:15 - but if it's a "bad" night (or I waited too long to start bed and she's overtired) it can be drawn out for 30 or 45 minutes.  On the bright side Emma is quite patient and easily entertained on those nights where I'm busy for-what-feels-like-ever with Food TV or YouTube or some other screen time thing.

I find it interesting how bedtime routines change over the small child lifetime.  I started this journey with a baby who would only nurse to sleep, and then would only stay asleep while being held - god forbid you set baby Emma down when you thought she was asleep.  A baby swing was a huge help, but you can't let your baby sleep in one of those all night!  Napping basically only happened in the car and we co-slept with her so she could nurse to sleep and then not be moved.  That was a rough habit to break, but looking back now I barely remember it.  Likely because she had a lot of endurance and would cry for an hour (or more) at night before she learned how to self soothe.  But she did, and now her "bedtime" is actually a very long process as she and Rose start at about the same time (7pm) but she isn't actually in bed ready to sleep until 8 or slightly after.  She usually has her Dad time where they read books together and then watch her cooking shows that she loves.  Once I'm done with Rose I can escape to my blog if there's time left, otherwise I watch a few minutes of tv with them and then read Emma a story or two, have "conversations" for a few minutes and then turn out her light - or at least say goodnight if she's not entirely tired and she'll "read" for a bit and turn out her own light when she's done.  The change is night and day with her.

Rose went the other way - she started out as a great baby.  You could nurse her, take her off, burp her, change her, whatever and she'd be happy to be laid down sleepy but awake and just nod off on her own.  We used a soother a bit with her but then she found her thumb, and now we're working at breaking that habit (although not too hard, yet.)  Then she got older and more demanding as a 2 and 3 year old where I got stuck reading 5 to 10 books a night, because I knew if I just read them I could then get out and move on to Emma - otherwise Rose would cry and carry on and keep coming out of her room and not sleeping.  I'd try occasionally to put my foot down, but the sad, teary face broke my heart every time and I'd give in.  But thankfully she's grown out of that phase and we are down to 2 books a night (3 if she chooses her "barn books" which are in a cardboard barn as a set so of course you have to read them all...) then kisses and goodnight.

Bedtime can be the sweetest time of day when you get one-on-on time with each child.  You can have a few quiet minutes talking about how the was and how you had fun together.  I know as they get older bedtimes will change again and they won't need the longer Mommy time and I will surely miss it.  I guess I'll have to try harder to soak it in and not rush through it as I'm wont to do on the million-story evenings.

Toodles!