We're very lucky.
Jack is the sort of child
we all assume we'll have
when we decide to have children,
and the sort of child
less experienced parents
congratulate themselves for.January and February 2004
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Monday, Mar. 08, 2004 - Mamma
Jack is very much a creature of routine. I suppose most babies are, but it seems especially true of our "laughing Jack".
As an example, a few nights ago, he was especially exhausted. (This crawling business takes a huge amount of energy, and causes him to be way too restless to nap well!) So I tried to foreshorten his bedtime routine to just putting on his pajamas, and skipping the "routine". Mistake.
I dressed him in his pajamas, and we went to lie down and nurse. He nursed and then flipped over and crawled away, giggling. I knew that couldn't be right because his eyes were neon red from exhaustion! But try as I might, I couldn't convince him to lie down and go to sleep.
Eventually I gave up and brought him back out to the parlour to play with his toys...he played for 15 minutes, but he was tired, and very cranky...so I started his routine. We turned off each lamp in turn, saying "Good night lamp", we turned off the radio, saying "good night radio". We locked the front door and said "good night door". On the way down the hall to the bedroom, he chirped "Good night". We changed his diaper, and then we lay down to nurse. He was out almost before his head hit the pillow!
So now, we don't skip the routine anymore. We may do it quickly, but we do it.
In the next week or so, I am thinking about adding the reading of a book to the routine. Jack is "too busy" to pay much attention when I try to read during the day -- but he loves his books, and Dad says he has days when he's far more interested in books than in toys -- he just doesn't have those on the weekends when I'm home! Once I've gotten him started, I expect Mr. Routine will have a lifelong bedtime reading habit! (I'm such a bad influence!)
