Sunday, October 16, 2005

Bedtime, Sharing

Our bedtime ritual has settled in at about 1 hour and fifteen minutes. The ritual looks something like this, and usually happens shortly after dinner time:
1. bath (we put the tub that Nick and Catherine gave us in the kitchen sink...it fits in there snugly, and that way we don't have to bend down and kill our backs washing her in the bathtub)
2. dry her off and take her into the nursery, where she nurses--hence the name--while listening to "Bedtime with the Beatles" - a bunch of Beatles hits turned into orchestral lullaby things
3. we turn the lights down about halfway through the CD - barely light enough to read
3a. she sometimes falls asleep during this step, in which case we go straight to step 5
4. I take her and rock her in the rocking chair, in the dark, while a windup Eeyore plays Braham's lullaby.
5. Into the crib: got this whole technique down, where I gradually lower her, and then use my right hand to support her head so I can pull my left hand out from under her neck. She sometimes wakes up in this step, in which case:
6. Gently hold her arms steady - otherwise she flails around and gets upset. If I hold her arms, she'll immediately relax and eventually fall asleep.

One thing we've been noticing lately is that she likes to give us things. Food, pieces of paper. Then she wants those things right back. She's practicing sharing, I guess.

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