Bedtime

Now that I'm a mom, I have to say that my favorite part of the day is bedtime. There is just nothing sweeter on this earth than a clean baby in clean pajamas, lullabies playing, bedtime stories being told, and "I Love You, Sleep Tight." Brian and I love this family time with Preston. I wanted to document it, because it just so precious.

So around 8 p.m. we start getting ready for bed. Which means I get his bottle ready for the last feed of the night (I nurse him during the day, so this gives me a break!) and all three of us head upstairs.

First up is bath time. After trying several different ways to do bath time, we finally figured out a way that Preston tolerates. I say tolerates because before this, he would scream so loud and hard his whole body was red. Tears would stream. This broke my heart, so thanks to an episode of Bethenny Ever After (I LOVE this show) we decided to try this and it worked!

I put my bathing suit on and get in our bath tub with him and he likes it! Brian sits on the edge of the bath tub and cleans his body while I wash his hair.

After the bath, Brian takes him to his room and puts his pajamas on. He always sleeps in gowns, because it makes it easy. Then he brushes his hair, picks him up and takes him to the rocker. I get the iPod, put the Pandora channel Children's Lullabies on, or sometimes we listen to Preston's iPod. It has all the Rock-a-Bye Baby soundtracks on it, and a few classical soundtracks. Then I go and pick a book from his little collection and sit on the floor and read it. After we read the book, we read the Jesus Calling devotion for that day (thanks Mimzie!) Even Brother gets in on the action.

He sits on the floor next to me while I read. While the music is playing and I'm reading the book, Brian gives Preston his last bottle before going to bed. He usually takes anywhere from 3 to 5 ounces.

After his bottle, we take him over to his crib, wrap him up in his swaddle, and kiss him goodnight. We tell him we love him and Brian does the sign of the cross over his little body. In Baptism class, Deacon Jack asked us to do this, so Brian started it at night.

We do this routine every night. Then Brian and I get the video monitor set up and go hang out in our room. We watch him fall asleep on the monitor and talk about how perfect and sweet he is and how we can't believe we have a baby for like an hour. FAVORITE part of the day :)