I would like to think the key to a good nights sleep is a good nighttime routine, not only for baby but for parents too.
For the most part Cameron is a good sleeper and has been for most of her life. I would like to believe it’s because of the nighttime routine we try to implement. Now we aren’t perfect parents, so sometimes not everything happens that should, or we just run out of time, but for the most part this is what we try to accomplish each night before putting Cameron to bed. Also, they don’t get home from work/daycare pickup at the same time every day so sometimes that affects how the evening/night routine ends up.
About an hour or so before bedtime, depending on when we finish dinner it’s bath time for Cameron. We try to use lavender scented bath products for her as they are normally calming scents. This helps us and her to learn that this is the beginning of settling down and getting ready for bed.
Once she’s dried and dressed, this is when we pull out our books and flash cards. We try to spend about 15-20 on flash cards learning words and associating words and photos. After we are done with flash cards we then choose 1-3 books a night to read. Some nights she’s interested and others she wants nothing to do with books, but I will read to her regardless of it I’m stating at the back of her head, I want her to just hear the words being read.
While all of this is happening, right around a half hour before bed we will then turn on the children’s lullaby pandora station. We just want the calming songs and sounds to help her relax.
At bedtime she does still get milk, so we give her her milk and once she finishes it, it’s off to bed. In bed we turn on the fan in her room for noise and her musical giraffe, then it’s lights out and we leave the room.
Most nights she is out within 5-10 minutes, other nights she tosses for maybe up to 20-30 minutes but she then puts herself to sleep. She’s been doing this for about 6 months, although before when we were feeding her she would fall asleep in our arms before even reaching her crib.
Her bedtime is 7:15-7:30, so we try to start all of her routine by 6ish. So far it’s been working for us, but if something were to stop then we would try something new.
