Bedtime!

We have a bedtime routine! WOO HOO!!! While we were home for Christmas, I started thinking about how it might be time to get Jackson on some sort of schedule for bedtime. But, we still didn't have a regular time that he went to bed for the night. I finally decided that the routine was more important than the time. I was able to tell when his last bottle of the evening would be so I decided after that feeding, I would get him changed, read him a story, and put him to bed. The first time I tried it there was also a bath involved. It worked beautifully!

When we got home, Josh got involved and it continued to work well. I have read several pieces (and heard from a few friends) that the earlier you put your baby to bed, the longer they will sleep. That makes no sense, but we decided to test it out. The other night Jackson went to bed around 9:30. That night he was up after four hours, three hours, two hours. He had been sleeping at least five hours straight. So, we decided the next night we would try putting him down around 8:30. He started rubbing his eyes and acting tired around 8:00 so we went ahead and put him down then. He slept for NINE hours! I couldn't believe it! The next night we were out with friends and he got to bed a touch later, but he still slept for six hours. He went down at 8:00 again tonight, so we'll see how it goes!

We don't have much of a nap schedule during the day. I'm trying to track when he does nap to see if there is any rhyme or reason. I'm not as worried about getting that figured out. I'm guessing once we get bedtime established, the nap stuff will follow soon after...