When going to bed, Kiddo has to go to the bathroom (which may take up to a half hour, depending on her day, and ours), drink a glass of milk, change into jammies (no more pull-ups, yay!), read scriptures, sing a song, say a prayer, and then have a few books read to her. Then one of us will lie with her for the five minutes or so it takes for her to fall asleep.
Unless she's had a nap. Then one of us reads her a lot of books, then leaves her to entertain herself with books, requests to use the potty, and requests for food (guess that's not so much entertaining just herself, is it?) until about 11 pm. We try to avoid naps. (But I need naps! So we still have quiet time almost every day.)
Babs has a much smaller routine. When we remember, we say family prayer together. My husband usually reads her two or three board books. She nurses (time varying from 5 seconds to 5 minutes). I stand next to her crib and sing her one song. She dives into the crib. She falls asleep. She may, start looking longingly into the crib while the song is going on. Do not be fooled. It is important to sing the entire song. Putting her in bed without completing the song will cause an unhappy baby, and thus the song and put into bed step will need to be repeated.
5 minutes vs. 45 minutes. No wonder we prefer the process for Babs.
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The other amusing thing about Babs is that she goes to bed at 6 pm. She's a pretty short napper, so by 6 pm she has had it. She is often wailing while we put on her jammies. She then sleeps until about 7:30 (sometimes she will have a 5 am snack). We thought this would be a short phase, but it's been going on for a few months now, and there appears to be no end in the near future. It means that as a family, we don't go anywhere in the evening. But that's okay.
