Bedtime routine...

Time change is screwing us. We had it down to a science and were getting 12 golden hours of sleep from the boy but since the time change we're not doing so hot. But here's the rigmarole.

Bath at 6:15. This is 95% of the time a daddy thing. Hair washing is twice a week and it's gotten better. It used to mean lots of screaming but he's finally gotten the concept of tilting his head back when the cup of water gets poured. Bath is usually about 15 minutes and involves lots of toys and and splashing in tub. Daddy gets him out, Henry looks at himself in the mirror, he opens the medicine cabinet, flips the fan switch off and on and then the light. Then daddy dries him on the changing table, adds diaper, and puts on the boys jammies (after Henry has thrown them over his head).

Then we all lay down on the futon mattress in Henry's room. Daddy usually reads anywhere from 3-6 books. Then a puzzle gets whipped out or a spin top, jack in the box, etc. Until very recently, daddy and Henry would have to go in the closet and scare the monsters away (Go away monsters!" and then they would bang on things--and then Henry would jump into his pile of stuffed animals) but that's been abandoned. Henry also used to do flips and somersaults on daddy but these bedtime routines are a constantly evolving process. Henry also just dropped his crawl to his crib like a doggie and then he'd roll around in his imaginary dog food. Now we all just cuddle and relax while Henry tells us stories about his day. We try not to laugh. Then around 7:00 or 7:15 we put Henry in the crib. We tell the monsters to get out of his crib and we have to spray imaginary spray.

Before he got sick a a few weeks ago that was it...we walked out the door and that was that but he got very used to us sleeping on his futon with him so now he wants one of us (usually daddy) to lay on the mat while he falls asleep. We've been decreasing the amt. of time we do this for and that seems to be okay. Until the time change he was waking at 7:30 the next day but now it's 6:15 (which to him is 7:15) but since he's going to bed an hour later, he's getting 1-2 hours less sleep a night.