Bedtime Follies

Putting my children to bed is always good for a few laughs.  I start the night about 8:00 when I lay down with my daughter and let her nurse for a little while.  She nurses for a while then ends up standing on her feet with her butt up in the air, making her basically nurse upside-down. Then when she is done she flops around for a few minutes until she ends up "spooning" with me.  It is tempting at this point to just let her stay that way all night for the cuddles, but I carry her to her bed anyway.  She cries for a few seconds until I cover her with her blanket and turn her heartbeat sound machine on and she is out.  Done, usually by 8:30.

Nursing Upside Down

My son on the other hand...

My son has NEVER been an easy bed time kid.  When he was 9 months old we would start letting him cry it out and he would end up crying for a good 45 minutes before he finally passed out in whatever position he happened to be in when he fell asleep.  I think he went a week when he was 2 where he went to bed on time, on his own.  Then he broke his leg and mommy insisted he sleep with us to cuddle for a few nights and that was the end of that.

Baby boy after passing out

He does better now though.  It used to be between 10:00 and 11:00 that he would go to bed.  I get him in bed between 9:00 and 10:00 now, so we are slowly getting there.  After my daughter is asleep I send him into my bed and tell him to go lay down.  My husband and I remain in the living room.  Now my little boy has figured out what we are doing so he asks for me to come in and cuddle with him.  I would like to but he uses the audience to keep himself awake.  My answer to him when he asks me to come in is usually "I will come in and lay with you after you go to sleep."  He usually follows up with "Mommy!  I'm asleep!"  We go back and forth with that for a good 5 minutes with him trying to insist that he is asleep because his eyes are closed.  It ends one of 3 ways.  1) Daddy yells at him to go to sleep and he whines and cries for a few minutes until he goes to sleep, 2) Mommy or Daddy give in and go lay down with him and we all go to sleep (which means I don't get the bed at all to myself), or 3) I begin to ignore and he proceeds in the 30 minutes mommy calling session until he passes out. 

Eventually I want both kids in bed by 8:30 and asleep before 9:00, but I am enjoying the crazy routine we have going for now!