Bed Time Ritual

I wanted to share Maddie's bed time ritual. We have dinner then she gets a bath about every other night. She gets a bottle as well as we are either drying her off and/or changing her.

Every night we read Maddie 2-3 bed time books. The first book varies but the second book (so far) is always Sleepy Dog. The third book (again, so far) is always Nighty Night.

Within the past few weeks, Maddie has come to LOVE Sleepy Dog. Sleepy Dog used to be the first book we read. If we tried a new book, Maddie would grunt and point to the side of the rocker where Sleepy Dog was.  There is a page that says "Kiss me. Kiss me good. Kiss me goodnight" and we give her kisses as we read those lines. Just recently, Maddie has kissed us when we read "Kiss me" before we get a chance to kiss her! She is such a smart little girl!

When we move onto reading Nighty Night, Maddie gets a bit antsy because she knows that bedtime is drawing ever so near. She will sometimes lean over to the side where the rest of the books are because she wants to be read another book.

Sleepy Dog!

Reading Nighty Night and looking for a different book.

Story time with Daddy!

After story time, we put her in her zippy night suit and say good night to her animals. She has figurines in the corner of her room by her crib, and also animal decals above her crib.  We say "Hi!" to the animals every morning when she wakes up and also after every nap. And we say "See you later" before naps or "Good night" before bedtime every night. She loves these animals!

Then the sound machine comes on, the lights go out, we say "I Love You" and kiss good night (sometimes lots of kisses!) and we lay her in her crib.  Maddie is pretty great about falling to sleep quickly, usually taking anywhere from 1-15 minutes to fall asleep.