Night and seek

I'm actually quite proud of our bedtime routine, I can probably count the number of times it has been unsuccessful.

While most of it is probably fairly text book: bath, snuggles on her spare bed accompanied by bottle, a story and a cuddle.

Occasionally going to bed with her bottle when she subtly posts it through the bars of her cot and says 'night-night'; always then relieved of it before she falls asleep.

Isobel waves bye-bye and blows kisses from her cot, and we are away.

But, somewhere in the midst of this calm tranquility is a little game to be played with Daddy:



This evening wasn't a daddy day but she looked in all his hiding places just to be sure (he added two new spots last night so she checked those too), we wouldn't want him lurking anywhere uninvited would we now?

Tomorrow she will probably just call his name a couple of times.

The next day she may not.

That Friday night smell

In my past life it wasn't unusual for there to be the odd incident of vomiting on a Friday evening, mostly not my own; PD manages it to make room for the next round. So, I guess I should have been slightly glad for the opportunity to reminisce when, at bedtime on Friday, Isobel was sick all over herself, me and the bed. But that wasn't what sprung to mind as I tried to remove her pjs and vest and make her smell lovely again.

I didn't even reminisce for Friday when she did it all over again at bedtime on Saturday.

It's my own fault really, you'd think that after being Isobel's mum for nearly six months and by finally feeling reasonably confident of my abilities that I would continue to trust my own instincts, but it seems I'm easily swayed.

It was an innocent enough conversation about Gina Ford routines. Now I'm not following Gina Ford, in fact we are doing the Isobel Grace Findon routine, but, as I did concede before, Gina's routines do seem to follow a baby's natural rhythm so it is reasonably similar.

Anyway, I digress. As the conversation progressed it transpired that Gina's babys, at about six months, should be having their whole bottle after the bath not half before anymore. So, I thought I would give it ago...

Two nights, four loads of washing later (a white and a dark each night) we are sticking to the I.G.F. routine of half before and half after (and I get two cuddles this way).

This evening all I got was a sickly burp, hooray.

Jiggling

While I love my daughter to distraction, I can honestly say the evenings have been our most challenging time slot.

The calories that have been burnt rocking / jiggling our child to sleep or near sleep add up to the several bars of Green and Blacks white chocolate we have consumed to console ourselves.

I know you should always put your baby down awake and let her drop off on her own; I know by taking this short-cut now we are storing up trouble for later on; but, when Isobel has been unhappy for an hour or so we'll do anything to stop the pain. (And yes, I know it is our pain not hers.) In fact I know this so well I once included it in a post I had the good sense not to publish - a post about all the things I planned to do and not do when I had the baby. I was always going to put my baby down awake, I do often - in the mornings for example, my angel baby will go back in her crib and merrily gurgle her way to sleep.

Anyway, good intentions are always just that, 'intentions', reality has often been different.

Now, we are back on the no jiggling bandwagon. Quiet cuddles (maybe a little rocking) then down to sleep it is.

Our first foray into this zone found me standing over an unhappy Isobel as she lay in her crib; I stood there shushing and rubbing her tummy. It was a long fifteen minutes but you know what - it worked, she went to sleep and stayed that way for many hours.

I suspect we have a long way to go, but it's a good start. Last night Isobel just went down peacefully, but I suspect that has more to do with fresh air and a good nap, then me.

Tonight, well, Isobel is overtired (again), so maybe we'll be earning our chocolate, but I do INTEND to try not to jiggle or rock (well, not too much anyway).