Jonathan’s Routine

Now that we seem to have settled into a regular bedtime routine, I figured I’d share. It’s at bedtime that we really notice the difference between Jonathan’s laid-back nature as compared to Mikaela’s. When Mikaela was Jonathan’s age, it seemed like we were up with her every 4 hours (at least), and it was much harder to get her back to sleep once she was up.

Now, the bedtime routine for both kids starts a little before 8 p.m. We go upstairs with Mikaela to get her jammies on, brush her teeth, and take evening meds. Usually, Mikaela lays down in our bed with Miriam. We say bedtime prayers, read a book or two if it’s not too late, and then Jonathan and I head to the basement.

I sit with him in my rocker-recliner (the reclining part is broken, but the rocker part works just right). I rock Jonathan to sleep. Once he’s asleep, I’ll put on the couch and work on the computer or hold him and watch some TV or a movie. Sometimes, Jonathan will wake up and want to eat, but usually I have to wake him up around 11 p.m. to feed him. He’ll take anywhere from 4-9 oz. (yep, sometimes the kid will down a full 9 oz. bottle in one sitting)! Then I’ll rock him back to sleep. Once he’s good and asleep, I’ll head up to bed. I put him in the bassinet next to the bed, move Mikaela into her bed, and go to sleep myself. Jonathan then usually wakes up once in the night - usually around 4 a.m. But when we’re lucky (and he’s eaten a lot at a midnight feeding), he’ll sleep through until 6 a.m. and we’ll both get a pretty normal night’s sleep.

As long as we stick to the routine, we all seem to get plenty of sleep. But when the routine gets thrown off, it can get ugly. Earlier this week, Miriam was sick so I slept with Jonathan in the guest room. I was tired myself, so I did his nighttime feeding a bit earlier than usual. He only took about 4 oz. at 10:30 p.m. He then proceeded to wake up approximately every 2 hours throughout the night. As a result, yesterday was NOT pretty. But we were back on track last night, and today is looking much better.