Success!

After 3 years of a horrible bedtime routine, we finally have success!  Okay, not really three years, probably more like a year and a half because before that time she was going down in her crib without a huge fight.  This was not a battle that we really tried to fight before because Hailey is constantly being bounced around from the babysitter, to her other aunt's house, to her mom's house and then to our house.  How could anyone fall asleep easily in so many different environments, schedules, and routines? When she is at her mom's house she sleeps in the same bed as her sister, so we have tried to be compassionate about her fright of sleeping alone.  For the last year or so, Hailey has stayed up entirely too late because she could not fall asleep by herself in her bedroom.  Instead she ended up going to sleep on the couch while Rich and I watched television.  This meant that we never got to relax and we were falling asleep at the same time...and then we'd have to get up and carefully move her to her bedroom.  Many nights she would wake up scared and come back out and sleep on the couch in the middle of the night.

Thankfully it seems like our bedtime struggle is finally over.  Rich gives Hay Hay a bath, blow dries her hair, brushes her teeth and puts her jammies on.  Then I take over and tuck her into bed, read three books that she has picked out, and sing four songs- "ABC's", "Twinkle, Twinkle", "You are my Sunshine" and "Itsy Bitsy Spider"- in that order, turn off all the lights except for her closet light and with a kiss on the forehead I am out the door.  This is our second weekend using this exact routine and it has worked like a charm.  I know much of it has to do with growing out of one stage and into another, but it also took a lot of work to slowly change over the rocky routine!  Fingers crossed next weekend we'll get her in bed before 9:30 pm.  We are shooting for an 8:00-8:30 bedtime:)