A Quick look at Colin's First Year.

Casper Babypants

Our doctor recommended choosing the same lullaby to sing to Colin at bed time.  He suggested twinkle twinkle little star.  I tried it once and decided we needed some new material.  Also, whenever I try to sing lullabies I tend to stray into Christmas songs.  Not sure which synapse is crossed to cause that.

As I sometimes do when I'm looking for a new parenting perspective, I hopped over to Nathalie's blog archives (Thanks Nathalie!).   She mentioned Casper Babypants and I went hunting.  Colin's current nighttime lullaby is Bright Bug.  It's hard to resist a song that's main refrain is I love you.  And Colin is my bright bug.  Perfect fit.

I was a little disappointed to realize I knew exactly one bath time song and it wasn't very long (Rubber Ducky from Sesame Street).  Then I found "Too Dirty to Love" by Capser Babypants!




I sing to Colin all of the time.  He loves it.  So I started exploring some of the other Babypants songs and found lots of them I like.

We have lots of favorites now.  Funny Bone, I found you, Baby Getting up, Run baby run, Butterfly driving a truck...  We want to buy his CD all of his CDs but that seems like overkill and we are having a tough time choosing!

Gavin likes to tell me he doesn't like a song I sing to Colin, then wait until he knows the lyrics and steal it... so now he's singing him babypants songs all day, too!  Then Grandma joined the fun.  I'm sure by the end of her visit, Buma will be singing Babypants with us too!

Good Night, Colin.

I love routines.  So I was completely on board with the idea of a bedtime routine for baby.

We started our first semblance of a bedtime routine on the first of the year.  Colin was a month old, we had gotten into a little bit of a groove, and our visitor flow was slowing down.

Our routine has evolved quite a bit since then.  And since Colin has recently moved to his nursery, it's a bit more solid.

Our current routine usually starts with bath time, but that deserves a post on it's own!

After bath, it's time for a baby massage and hair training.  Hair training is (mostly) a joke.  Colin has the same cowlick as his daddy and I'm trying to help his hair to pick a direction.

Good luck with that mom....

Ambiance is important.  If baby doesn't seem sleepy, I still turn on the night time mood lighting and let him play for a bit.

Moon in my room light

Night Light.

Next, it's book time.  We currently read either Good Night Moon or Snuggle Up, Sleep Ones.  On the Night You Were Born was a contender for bedtime book, but I can't read it without crying.

Finally, we sing "Bright Bug" by Casper Baby Pants (another topic deserving it's own post).  Although I just listened to the song for the first time in a few weeks and realized I sing it quite a bit slower.

If we are lucky that results in this:

If you are wondering about the 80's style Walkman in the baby's bed, it's his white noise.  I read some advice that actual radio static was better than a white noise machine because it's easier to replicate in a pinch.  Sounded reasonable to me, so there you have it.

Night time is still a struggle.  Some nights he wakes up once (which we are all happy with) and other nights it's significantly more.

Good night, Colin!