Bedtime.

Recently, bedtime became an issue. For days in a row it was crazy night after crazy night. We would do all of the normal bedtime stuff for us. Which is to go upstairs, put on a diaper and jammies and spend some time in bed the three of us with a story and then Jake tells Kai good night and they have kisses, Jake turns off the light and shuts the door. The end. No fancy routine. Kai usually bathes in the morning with one of us, so we don't have bathtime at night and sometimes we skipped stories if Kai was too keyed up. I discovered then that we had a combination of too late to bed and too much activity prior to bed. So, we changed up our routine. We go up stairs after dinner and spend time playing quietly. I try to encourage Kai to have some independent play time while I put away clothes or read a book to help him to wind down a little. Then we do jammies and diaper. Then it is time to snuggle into bed with books. The reading time has grown from one or two short stories to 20-30 minutes of reading. Then, after Jake leaves, Kai is asleep after 15-20ish minutes of nursing. (Yes. Kai still nurses to sleep. This is not an issue for our family. At all.) This is a huge improvement from the crazy nights that we had of 30-50 minutes of nursing followed by Kai being nearly asleep and then woken by what apparently was himself losing his mind. Jake would spend time with him and invariably I would end up back up in his room nursing him again or laying with him until he fell asleep. Ugh. I feel so much less stressed about bedtime and I think that Kai does also. Actually, I look forward to the quiet time together again. I also am enjoying the earlier bedtime and subsequent later wake time. Why it works this way I don't know, but it is lovely.

Some of Kai's favorite stories right now are: Horton Hears a Who, Where the Wild Things Are, In the Night Kitchen, Hedgie Blasts Off!, Go!Go!Go! and any Little Critter book.