Bedtime has now moved from 7:30pm to around 8pm naturally as her naps have now moved to around 2ish. I'll get to the naps in another post but for now, bedtime.
Now, 8pm means that's the time she decides to start cleaning up and then grabbing her Jay Raffe and heading to the bathroom to brush her teeth. She's fully in bed around 8:45pm. That means, pjs are on, new diaper on, animal brigade all tucked in, story told, bedtime cd playing and her lip balm (burt bee's) and cell phone in hand (aka iPod nano she uses as a flashlight at night).
Lately though we've been hitting this point where she wants me to hold her and sing to her again. It's not so bad because it's now down to 3 songs and she sings along with me but it also means that she's not fully asleep until 9-something.
Still I'm trying not to stress as 1) we're not trying to put her in a routine but follow hers for now and 2) she's getting on average 11-12 hours of sleep at night and 1-3 hours of sleep during naps.
I've also started implementing a recommendation that Dr. Sear's wife mentions in one of their books. If she still doesn't want to sleep, she can play in the bedroom in the dark but quietly. I leave a few boxes of miscellaneous bric a brac for this. She opens a box up and unpacks it. She plays with one or two items and then crawls into bed beside me and goes to bed. I don't get aggravated and it seems to let out whatever energy she has left before bed without protest. Plus the box play lasts no more than 5 minutes usually. Maybe that's it. She has a little bit of energy left and wants to release it before going to bed. After unraveling the mystery box, her curiosity is satisfied and she can go to bed without feeling as if there was something more to do with the day.
