Night Time Transitions

When Cooper started sleeping in a new room and in a new bed, we decided it was also time to transition to a new bedtime routine. Up until now, if I was at home during bedtime, which is 99% of the time, Cooper was pretty darn adamant about Mommy putting him to bed. So instead of fighting it each night, I put Cooper to bed. I didn't complain. I mean, who would complain about spending at least 30 minutes reading, rocking and talking or just quietly rocking that sweet little munchkin before bed each night? Not this Mama. Now, if I wasn't home at bedtime, Coop had no problems with Philip putting him to bed.

So, with the new bed room came a new bedtime routine, which included Daddy putting Cooper to bed. One, because it's important for Philip and Cooper to have that time together each night. Two, because come October, there will for sure be nights when I'm home and I will have a newborn to juggle during Coop's bedtime. We've tried a couple of different things over the last few weeks to work Daddy into the routine, and I finally think we've found something that works.

We started with doing the normal Mommy and Cooper routine, with Philip just quietly sitting on the bed with us. And slowly over the last couple of weeks, we've transitioned to Philip being an active part of the bedtime routine, reading books and laying down with Cooper. It's actually become something I look forward to each night because all three of us pile on to Cooper's bed, we read a couple of books, then we all three lay down together. After a couple of minutes, I sneak out and Cooper and Philip have some fun and sweet cuddle time. I love listening to the monitor and hearing my two boys talk and laugh together.

There have been a few times when Cooper asked for me after I've left the room, but really, I think the transition is going great! Coop now asks for Daddy to lay down with us during naptime (even though Philip is at work) and if we start to read books at night before Philip is in the room with us, Coop will enthusiastically say, with his hands on his cheeks, "Oh no! What about Daddy?".

Hopefully the transition will continue to go smoothly and by October, Coop will be completely used to a new routine.

Just a couple of pics of where I found Cooper one afternoon. He climbed up in his bed to read a Richard Scarry book. I love, love that he is such a bookworm!