Sleeping Babies

So I'm sure a lot of people out there have the perfect solution for putting babies to sleep. Let me just say I've read a lot of them already. Some seem like they could work, others are a bit out there. But getting a baby to sleep all night, to me, is quite challenging.

First off, let me say that we're trying to do a routine, and not sleep in mommy and daddy's bed. So far it's been going pretty well, only two days of pretty well, but two days is progress. Our routine goes something like this:

We get home from daycare, and I try to the best of my ability to keep him awake until his next feeding. His last bottle at daycare is usually around 3 - 3:30, depending on how demanding the other babies are. So that puts his next bottle between 6:30 and 7:30. But that also comes with the challenge of waking him up after the car ride home and keeping him entertained. So for his entertainment I talk to him, change his diaper, sing to him...well most of the time he wants to take a nap. (Insert lots of crying here) So for this evening it was at 5:30 and lasted until 6:30 when he kind of woke up on his own, but also with the help from mommy. He look was priceless though, kind of like the way my husband looks when I make him wake up. Well I gave him his bottle, he ate about 90% of it. I honestly don't believe in trying to make him eat more than he wants. There is no point because he'll spit it up.

The next step is an established bath. I give him a bath every night. Mostly because I don't like the way his daycare smells, not much I can do about that, but what I can do is not have him smelling this way. So he gets a 'bubble' bath, I just take the lavender soap and put some in while the water is running into his bath. He enjoys it. I'll use his legs and splash them for him and watch while he thinks how he could do that himself. It is fun to see his brain working.

The last step after the bath, getting dressed of course, is reading him a story. Right now we're reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone. I figure why not start at the beginning and work my way through all 7 books. Ben also wants to read some philosophy books to him too. At some point in time while I'm reading to him, he'll get fussy wanting me to stop, to which I will put him into his crib. I'm able to get about 5.5 hours of consecutive sleep out of him. To night he was asleep by 8, so maybe he won't wake up until 2 this morning. I'm hoping that by getting into this routine he'll be able to sleep all night long at some point in time. Though I've often heard that his sleep habits will change suddenly. Eh...anyhow, he's asleep now and we'll see what happens from here.