Bedtime Routine

Missy and I have a nice "bedtime routine" worked out for putting Eli to bed at night. These days, he goes down to bed very easily, which is very nice!

Around 6:30, we start getting ready for bed. This can involve 10-15 minutes of jumping in the Jumperoo to burn off some energy, and bathtime if a bath is needed (which is generally every 2 or 3 days).

At 7:00, the actual bedtime routine starts. Eli gets a fresh diaper and changed into his pajammas. Then we sit in the glider chair and read two or three books as a bedtime story.

After story time is over, we turn off all of the lights except the bathroom light across the hall with the door mostly closed to act as a "night light" (more so that Missy and I can see what we're doing than for Eli's benefit!). We also turn on Eli's bedtime music as this point -- this is the same relaxation music that we originally used for Missy's delivery of Eli! The music we use is Natural Stress Relief by the Solitudes -- it's simple, gentle music combined with water sounds (streams, ocean waves, gentle rain).

Finally, we feed Eli a bottle of formula while rocking him to sleep. When I'm putting Eli down, I'll generally talk to him quietly for the first minute or two about our day and pray a little bit with him -- generally in thanks for the good day we had -- and then just rock quietly with him until he is mostly asleep.

At first, he wouldn't always go to sleep right away after we put him in his crib, but now he is almost always happy to just fall asleep right away after his bottle is done and we've rocked him in the glider chair for a few more minutes. It has really worked out great!