Wyatt’s Bedtime Routine

pajamas | sleep suit | lovey | crib

Sleep has been a hot topic this entire first year…when Wyatt’s sleeping, how he’s going to sleep, and how long he’s sleeping for. I’ve talked about how all babies are so different before in this post, but if I’ve learned anything from being a teacher and a mom, it’s that routine is SUPER important. It’s sometimes hard to know what Wyatt knows or understands, but we all like predicability and routines help us understand the order of what happening next, and Wyatt responds to that as well.

We’ve done this routine (with slight variations) since Wyatt was a few weeks old. For the first 6 months of Wyatt’s life we did a lot of traveling and had a big cross-country move, but once we settled in New York City, we really focused on sticking to the routine strictly every night at the same time with all the steps in the same order. I really think this helped Wyatt start to sleep through the night. Now after Wyatt is done nursing he reaches for the toothpaste and then his book- he knows the order. We usually eat dinner around 6:00 pm, since 6 months Wyatt has been doing baby-led weaning (BLW) so he sits in his high chair at us with the table and eats what we eat for dinner. Our routine then starts around 6:30 pm and Wyatt is usually in his crib with the lights out by about 7:00 pm or a little after.

Bath

After we eat, it’s straight to the bath- 100% necessary with BLW because It. Is. Messy. We do a bath every night because Wyatt loooves the bath (has since birth), and because it’s another piece of our routine that helps him wind down for the evening. When Wyatt was a newborn we used this tub in the sink, and when he got bigger (at around 3 months) we started using this one in the tub, and we still use it occasionally to save water for quick baths instead of filling up the whole tub. After sudsing him up and letting him play for a bit, we take him out and dry him off with a hooded towel.

Pajamas

After bath time, we bring Wyatt to his room where we usually just have one lamp on…I tell myself the dim light helps him relax, TBH I don’t know if that really helps. We put a diaper on (back in the days when he nursed in the night, we’d use an overnight diaper or size up), and get Wyatt into his pajamas. When Tim’s home he does bath time and PJs with Wyatt, it’s their time to hang. Their routine includes having Alexa play Zac Brown Band’s “Chicken Fried” (one of Wyatt’s faves) and a little snuggle/playtime while they get PJs on. We usually let him pick out a book to read during this time too. We love these pajamas and these (also available here and here) and these are soooo soft! We give him his “puppy” which is his comfort object, we love this brand because they are so soft and snuggly. Wyatt is legit obsessed with his puppy.

#NewMomTip: If your babe uses a comfort object, buy two or more and keep them in rotation so they “wear” the same amount in case one ever goes missing!

Then we get Wyatt into his sleep sack so he stays warm in the night without a blanket (SIDS safety) – this lightweight one is perfect for the summer, and in the winter we used this or this one, the snaps at the shoulder are great, especially when he was younger. (When Wyatt was a newborn, we swaddled using this, it’s literally a miracle…we never had to swaddle with a blanket. At 3 months we attempted the Merlin Suit because friends had had amazing sleep results with it, but Wyatt was having no part of the astronaut suit.)

Boob or Bottle

Brush Teeth

After Wyatt nurses, it’s time to brush all 6 of our teeth! We use this toothbrush and this toothpaste. Because I use a “rice-sized” amount of toothpaste we just brush teeth in his room because it doesn’t get messy. I sing him the Raffi Brush Your Teeth song (ch ch ch ch, ch ch ch ch) because he thinks its hilarious. Wyatt LOVES brushing his teeth, I think it’s the combo of the toothbrush feeling good and the “silly strawberry” toothpaste flavor, he goes wild when I ask him if it’s time to brush his teeth. I wish I could say the same for myself about my level of excitement for toothbrushing, ugh.

Read Books

Next, I offer a pacifier and we read a book or two. Wyatt loves to read, and as a former teacher, I love that he loves it. We started reading to him when he was born and although it seems like it’s silly to read to a baby who can’t even see yet, building emergent literacy skills is super important for babies. More on reading with Wyatt here. When we first started doing our bedtime routine we would read the same book EVERY night, Goodnight Moon…I now know it by heart, sometimes I would read it with my eyes closed to mix it up, I’M SO WILD. (FYI the more you look at those pictures, the more bizarre that room seems.) But for real, I felt like the more consistency we had in our routine, the better. Wyatt is now slightly obsessed with Goodnight Moon and although we don’t read it every night anymore, it’s still one of his faves.

Sound Machine On, Lights Out

When we finish reading, I turn on the sound machine– louder than you would expect, but we live in NYC so I have to drown out the honking and sirens. (We use this one on-the-go.) I then turn off the lamp- we keep both on the nightstand for easy access. Then I usually snuggle Wyatt for a minute or two. I don’t want him to fall asleep in my arms, so it’s just a short time. Sometimes a lullaby is included, others a back rub. Wyatt still lets me snuggle him so I’ll ride that out.

Crib

Then I give Wyatt a kiss and lay him in his crib– totally awake. This part took a while to actually make happen. For the first 6 months he would not be put into his crib awake under any circumstances. He would scream. bloody. murder. even after a few attempts at sleep training. Once we settled into our NYC apartment, when he was 6 months old, we gave sleep training another go (a hybrid version of Ferber, Weissbluth, and parent’s intuition) and slowly, but surely he got used to the idea of going into his crib awake, and putting himself to sleep.

Long gone are the days of endlessly bouncing him to sleep, ever so carefully placing him into the crib so as not to wake him (literally I had a system of moving my arms strategically while lowering him down so he wouldn’t feel it), and tip toeing towards the door. I dreaded anytime Wyatt had to go to sleep because of this song and dance, he was very particular and very vocal about it. Now, and for the past 6 months, he goes in and hangs out for a little before putting himself to sleep with no crying. I leave the room and close the door.

We use this camera to keep an eye on him, instead of a monitor we can watch him on our phones, which is great because they’re usually always with us. Having a video monitor was especially helpful when we were sleep training so we could see what he was doing when we weren’t in there.

Sweet Sleep. The End.

*For naptime we do the same routine, but modified. No bath or nursing- but all of the rest. Consistency is key for anytime he goes to sleep.*