Since the main purpose of this blog is capture the journey of raising Avery, I want to lay out our current nightly routine. Avery is 3 1/2 months old now, and I’m sure this routine won’t last, so it will be fun to look back and read one day.

Kelley (Going Mom) usually gets home around 5-6pm with her bag of breast milk bottles she pumped and eager to see her daughter. Depending how the day went for Avery and me, she might still be asleep in her crib, asleep with me in a chair, asleep in the baby carrier (attached to me), screaming anywhere around the house, or just keeping calm and hanging out with dad. Most of the time, it’s one of the sleep options, but you never know.

There will be a fruit and veggie smoothie I made waiting for Kelley to have to hold her over until dinner. I usually unpack her lunch bag and pack the next day’s lunch that I prepared her ready to take in the morning. The main goal is to take most of the load off of Kelley so she can spend some quality time with Avery. Kelley will get into comfortable clothes and wash her face while I hide in a corner attempt to entertain Avery.

Entertaining Avery at this age means making click noises and weird facial expressions or showing her cards with animals. We also put her in her Baby Einstein jumper, but that only lasts ten minutes at the most. If we have the time, Kelley and I will talk about the day while playing with Avery. If short on time, Kelley will hold her while I cook Kelley’s dinner which right now is some form of a Grilled Goat Cheese Sandwich and salad or tomato soup.

I normally have a salad with a lot of steamed veggies and egg whites, salmon, or chicken that I’ve prepared earlier in the day and ready to eat later. Most of my daily food intake is at night and had been for years now. It works thus far and I love being able to sit down and enjoy my big meal at night. Of course, Avery might have other plans, but it’s not too frequent, yet…….

Kelley will then hand Avery over as I serve her dinner. It’s close to bath and bed time at this point, and we’re usually searching for anything to keep Avery from being fussy. Right now, the almighty vacuum saves the night! While Kelley eats, I will strap Avery in our carrier and proceed to vacuum the house. With our dog, Abby, always rolling in the grass and tracking it in and me making a mess in the kitchen, a daily vacuum never hurts. Once done, I will find things to put up or just have Avery stand on my stomach and lift her up and down. Doing this is good for at least one smile and is most certainly worth it!

Once Kelley is finished, it’s time for the bath! Kelley gets the water ready and I get Avery ready. Every time I lay Avery on the changing table, she will eek out at least one more smile as she gets undressed; never fails. I carry over to the tub once ready and lay her in the baby bath chair. At this point, she usually pees and Kelley will have to drain and re-fill the bath. But we are happy to do so because Avery simply loves being in the bath and has yet to really cry when in the tub.

Just tonight, Kelley made the observation that we’ve been taking longer with each bath lately just because she’s happy. Every time we take Avery out of the tub, she’s a screaming mess the rest of the time! So really, we are more than happy to prolong the nightly bath however we can. We’ll typically just splash her with water for a few minutes after everything is done and she cares not one bit.

Which bring me to the water swaddle. Yep, I want to invent one. Since letting a baby sleep in the tub is frowned upon, and we can’t just sit and splash Avery all night, there must be an alternative. All you need is to take something like this water blanket I found via Google search and transform it into a swaddle of some sort.

Maybe the Woobmie would be a good design template where water could flow throughout while the baby is snuggly zipped in the middle. It could be called the Water Woombie (patent pending*)! Hell, I’d kinda like that for myself, but with freedom to move my arms though…

Would it be safe? Nope. And that’s why I really won’t invent the Water Woombie, but it’s a fun thought. Seriously, our muscles tighten in fear every time I lift Avery out of the tub to be dried off.

Back to the routine. Kelley will rub coconut oil all over our screaming baby and put a new cloth diaper (yes, we do cloth diapering and love it!) on for the night. Once she’s dressed, I’ll swaddle Avery using a cloth strip to hold down her arms and then her Woombie. Keeping those arms from going to her face has been the key to a longer, better sleep; for all of us.

From there, Kelley will feed Avery one last time and rock her to sleep. Kelley usually falls asleep for a couple hours herself. With my freedom, I finally take a shower for the day and sit down with my salad and protein smoothie I made earlier. After that, I enjoy low fat cottage cheese and a lot of plain, non-fat Greek yogurt with frozen blueberries. Peanut butter is usually involved too. Great way to end the day.

I’m not sure how long we’ll keep this routine, but for now, it mostly works and we’ll keep at it as long as possible.

*Patent not really pending

Do you have a certain routine to get your kiddos to bed?
Do your kids love or hate the bath?