Snuggling down with tummy lights

I love CD1 on this album

Following the recent bedtime challenges, all of which provided me with more than a healthy amount of time to dwell on things, I updated the bedtime routine.

Originally the bedtime routine consisted of a bath followed by a feed whilst I read Alby his bedtime story.  Sometimes he would fall asleep before I finished reading other times I would put on CD 1 of Sleeptime Lullaby and Alby would continue to snuggle until settled in the land of nod.

The main issue I had/have with this routine is that I couldn’t work out how to move Alby on from it.  On those nights when I was up and down the stairs like a yo-yo I realised how feed and me centric it is – which doesn’t help when handing over to daddy or when trying to fully wean.

My hands love this stuff

And so, we made a change.  Actually we made a few and the routine has a new look:

Following his bath Alby and I return to his bedroom where I give him a short massage under the light of his new Tomy projector.  We then sit and read bedtime themed stories together.  It’s then time for the lights off and on with our ragtime lullabies whilst Alby has his bottle.

Clearly I’m making this all sound far more peaceful and relaxed than it really is. For starters, Alby as a 16 month old will not accept the bottle as readily as he did at 6 months.  For the first few days he rejected it outright.  Now he will reach out for it at the end of story time though he has yet to fall asleep on it, opting for me instead.  I’ve taken the attitude of “don’t offer, don’t refuse” though I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve that I’ll be employing over the next ten days in an effort to get him completely on the bottle. 

Tummy lights

And what about the tummy lights?  Well let’s not go thinking that Alby having just splashed the house down in the bath will simply lie down for a massage.  He is totally amazed by the projector.  He lies still for long enough for me to warm the Coconut massage balm and then he squirms for the projector.  The images get shone against the wall, the wardrobe, the floor and, Alby’s favourite, against his bare tummy.  He is fascinated by it.  Pointing at the colours on his skin then looking up to see if they are still on the ceiling too, then back to his stomach, then shining the lights on the ceiling whilst he double checks the status of his stomach...

Not necessarily the chilled out wind down I had in mind but it adds a bit of fun and distraction. 

 

Story of the week

He also loves the bedtime books. A far cry from the proper stories we’ve been reading over the past 16 months.  Now it’s all about board books of the “My First Words” variety, boasting large pictures and less than a dozen words in total.  His favourite is “Goodnight Poppy Cat” which I’ve now bought from Amazon Marketplace in an effort to avoid any upset when we finally return our current copy to the library.   

(And yes, in addition to the new chair I’ve spent my recent pay packet on new books and a projector.  So much for keeping to my budget.  Ho hum, I’ll share the other recent purchases later.)