Bedtime Routine

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On the nights that Migs is home Az's bedtime routine consists of a bath every other night, teeth brushing, a story read by Dad until she decides that they are done and tells him "goodbye" or to go, and then I nurse her and stay with her until she is asleep, at which point she is transferred to her crib to sleep for a couple hours until she wakes and I pull her into bed with me to spend the rest of the night. On nights that Migs is not home I take over the storytelling but it is largely the same.

I do wish that I hadn't helped Az become so reliant on nursing and laying in bed with me to fall asleep but I also enjoy the time just laying peacefully with her each night. I know that she will learn to put herself to sleep eventually, she won't be in college and requiring me to drive over to her dorm each night so she can sleep, so in the mean time I'll just enjoy the excuse to have that one-on-one time with her. Currently from the time the lights go out and we begin nursing I stay with her exactly 35 minutes, down from an hour when she was younger. When she turns twenty months old in a few days I'll cut the time down to 30 minutes, but I might keep it at thirty minutes for some time. As with most things related to parenting, I've learned to just take it as it comes.

During the day Az also nurses herself to sleep, though on the days I work she still gets her two daily naps in with Migs so when hard pressed she apparently can fall asleep without it. I asked him how he gets her to sleep and he said that when she gets tired she just finds a spot and falls asleep. None of this will work when it comes time for her to start daycare or if she ever has to be watched by anyone else at night, but so far she has never been watched by anyone but Migs and myself. And so our imperfect routine works for now, and since we are in the now at the moment, it seems to be fine enough.