The Sleeper

Ok...so Mady is a sleeper. I swear the Lord knew what he was doing by giving me a child that loves to sleep b/c neither me nor Mady are morning people. She has been sleeping through the night since she was about 2 months old. I've had several people asking me lately if I had any secrets and I really don't but I thought I would share our night time routine. Maybe this will provide some of you with some ideas you had not thought of yet.





1. Bath time! - Mady gets a bath EVERY single night with lavender shampoo and baby wash. We don't like to skip this step.





2. Lotion - I immediately take Mady into her room and rub her down in lavender lotion. She is almost like a little greased piglet when I get done but she smells so good and I swear it helps her sleep.





3. Milk - She drinks a sippy cup of milk right before bed. Usually she does this while sitting in my lap with her "bankie". which leads me to....





4. The "Bankie" - this is a God-send. She loves her bankie. No matter if it's 105 degrees outside, she always has her "bankie". One piece of advice: always have more than 1. We have just recently found a second one for Mady, thank the Lord. It's a security thing for her.





5. Paci - Mady loves her paci and she pretty much only needs it at night or when she isn't feeling good. The other trick we have here is that we have lots of extra pacis in her crib. The reason for this is that if she wakes up in the middle of the night, she can easily reach out and grab one and fall right back asleep. I would hate walking in there every couple of hours just to put a paci back in her mouth.





6. Lullaby Baby - We also rock Mady for a couple minutes while singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Jesus Loves Me. After singing these, we lay her down and usually she will hum the songs until she falls asleep.





Mady goes to bed every night between 8 and 8:30 and sleeps til about 9 or so the following morning. She hates to be woken up and she is definitely not a morning person. These techniques are what we have evolved over the months and it proves to be effective for us. I personally believe that babies operate best on routine but as any parent knows, you have to adjust things to suit your own child b/c they are all so different.





Happy Sleeping!