Night Time Routines

The other night we were doing our bed time routine. I realized how far we have come from having three little infants and putting them to bed! However, they have gotten more quirky as they have gotten older. For some reason Dan can't ever cover them up correctly. They all have noise makers and their music. They have had those since they were born and they even travel with us!

When the boys were born and came home from the NICU, they had to be woken up every 3 hours to be fed, which was a chore to get preemies to eat. We were so sleep deprived! Eventually we got on a schedule that one of us took the first half of the shifts, and the other one took the second half of the shifts at night. Oh the first time to sleep for 5 hours straight was glorious! Once their pediatrician gave us the go ahead, we then started to get them to sleep through the night. By three months we had them sleeping through the night and they have been good sleepers ever since! I say "good" rather than "great" since they get me up at 6:30 every morning :) They have their moments, especially with sickness, travel and stalling that they try and push the limits, like all kids do.

Our bedtime routine starts with a calm down activity. Reading books, watching something together, etc. Then we change into pj's, 1 gets his pull ups (the other two are night time potty trained), brush teeth, then go to pray and sing.

Each child gets to pick a song. They get stuck in a rut! There are times we have to ban certain songs because if I have to sing "Three little Monkeys" or "ABC's" one more time I will go insane! We pray, and tuck into bed.

Easton is strange like his Mommy. We love how the cold pillowcase feels on our cheek. One

time when he was little and sick I had to change his pillowcase. The only one in the middle of the night I could find was the one I had in college and could never part with. It was perfectly cold and soft. Since then it has been his favorite bed time buddy. It will rotate from needing to be covering him under his blankets, rolled up, and currently folded perfectly into a rectangle.

Quinton he has to sleep on his right side, blankets pulled up to his chin, and holding the object of choice at the moment. He trades who is his night time favorite. On one hand it's very nice that he can trade easily, but on the other hand you don't know what he is wanting and trying to locate the item can be a challenge. It is usually one of three; Baby, sheep or prayer bear.

Dalton has had his blue stuffed cow since he was an infant. Struggling with asthma, stuffed animals are really bad for him. I had found an asthma friendly brand of animals when he was little. It can handle all the washings really well! It was only around for a short time when Dan asked me what the cow's name was. I said "Molly" as a joke, "to give me another girl in the house". It has been Molly ever since! Dalton pulls on the silky pink ears and they are coming apart. Since I am sewing-challenged Molly's poor ears are broken and hanging.

Fresh Pj's, clean teeth, blankets smoothed, special items in hand, noise makers on, music on, lights out.... ZZZZZZZZ

That is a peek into what we are doing around 7:30/8:00 every night. What is your bed time routine with your kids?