March 07, 2004: Bedtime with Papa

Last night, for the first time ever, Veronika went through her whole bedtime routine and successfully fell asleep with someone other than Mama and I'm proud to say that that person was me. A couple of weeks ago we decided to try to get her used to an extended bedtime routine (bath, pajamas, book, bottle/breast, sleep) in the hopes that she could fall asleep more easily with another person if they walked her through a familiar pattern of events. I was chosen to be the guinea pig for this experiment and on only my second attempt, I succeeded (or should I say, Veronika let me succeed). She fussed a little bit but after the second dose of the bottle she was out cold. I gently put her in the crib and tiptoed out of the room, all gushy with the feelings that a baby falling asleep in your arms can inspire.

We are both hoping that this pattern of success will continue until one day we can leave the house together after 7 p.m.