Baby Things

The past week or so we've added a bed time routine to our day. It seems to be helping Jackson wind down and has added about an hour to his first stretch of sleep. It only takes 30 minutes or so, but I'm working on the timing after his last nap so that he plays long enough that he's tired by the time it's over but not so tired before that he doesn't enjoy it. He's been waking up from his last nap around 6:30 and for now I'm letting him play until the first tired sign, which ends up being around 7. There are a few things that make this much easier for me.

The first thing I do is give Jackson a bath. I use a chair like this, the Summer Infant Bath Seat, in our regular tub filled to about the bottom of the pillow. I like this method because it's much easier to store a small chair rather than a plastic baby tub. Jackson is hillarious in the bath. He kicks his little arms and legs until he's laying down in the bottom of the chair rather than sitting up in it. After I was him, I hold his neck and shoulders out of the water and let him float. He loves it so much.

 This is the Homedics SoundSpa Lullaby. This is an awesome white noise machine. The ocean  noise doesn't go silent between waves sounds like so many do, so there's no break in the noise. This is very, very important. I also like the lullabys it plays. If Jackson is super fussy, I can turn on Twinkle Twinkle Little Star loudly, and he calms down almost immediately to listen to the music. He really likes looking at the projector, but it keeps him awake so we don't use it often.

Christopher turns this on as I'm drying off Jackson, using an oversized flannel receiving blanket instead of a baby towel. It wraps him better, and I find it much easier to dry all his little folds with a thin blanket.

After I load him up with diaper cream and get a diaper on, I give him a massage with baby lotion. It smells soooo good. I'm not a very good baby masseuse, so usually Jackson chats up Christopher while I give him a massage.

I swaddle Jackson and feed him (I'll spare you the picture of that. The, ahem, food source is not so hot these days.) Then I read him Shel Silverstein poems. He loves the rhythm, and I love how funny they are. Even Christopher cracks up at some of them. I read to him for about 10 minutes or until he's looking very droopy.

I rock Jackson until he's completely asleep and still. This is the Summer Infant/Carter's Sleigh Glider and Ottoman combo. It's one of the less obnoxious looking gliders. It's also pretty comfortable.     
We're still working out what to do with him once he's asleep. Last night he slept in the cosleeper except for one stretch where I forgot to put him back in it, and one stretch after Christopher left for work that there was enough room in bed to lay him on his own in the bed with me. He slept so much better last night that he usually does. That is another post, however, because Mr. Man decided that nap time is O V E R.