My love of routine

I am a routine kinda gal. I love structure, I love familiarity, and I love how good it all makes me feel. One of the things I realized tonight that I love is our bedtime routine for Brynlee. I don't have the classic baby bedtime routine: bath, lotion, books, lullaby, then rocking to sleep. Brynlee has her baths in the mornings so that I can clean up her stinky snot smell and sometimes pee from the night and smell her yummy, lotiony self all day!

Her bedtime routine is very simple:

 I change her diaper and put her in her jammies. 

She gets a 6 oz bottle and it is the only bottle of the day where I hold her the whole time. It has made me a little bit sad that I wasn't able to have that special time with her anymore since she quit nursing so I have made it a point to always hold her while she drinks her bedtime bottle. 

When she is almost done with her bottle, daddy comes and gives her kisses. He always says the same thing, but I love it! "Ny night Brynlee. *kiss* I love you. *kiss* Sleep good k? *kiss*" It's so sweet. She is usually mostly groggy and almost asleep but she always relaxes and closes her eyes while daddy says good night. (Enter "awwwww"s and heart melting here) 

As soon as she finishes her bottle I carry her to her bed with her up against my chest. 

When we get to her room I pat her back and sing her twinkle twinkle little star.

 I kiss her and say, "I love you Brynlee, see you in the morning". 

I lay her down and give her one more kiss. 

She has been really good about putting herself to bed for the most part, but sometimes it takes a little bit of bum patting :). 

This is seriously the most simple thing, but I have grown to love putting her to bed. I am a bit selfish, too, because I really always want to do it myself. The other night, Spencer was going to put her to bed while I ran some errands and I was kinda sad. I kissed her goodnight before I left but it just felt wrong. Luckily for me she was still awake when I got home so I got to put her to bed! :)

 My favorite part of this whole routine though, is looking in the mirror on the way to her room. With the bathroom door open, I can see the mirror as I walk down the hallway to her room. She used to be so small...she was just this tiny little thing. Now as I look in the mirror, my baby is not so small anymore. Her body is as long as my torso and when she is sleeping, she is HEAVY! I love looking in the mirror and seeing my baby on my chest. I feel like I watch her grow by looking in that mirror every night. I love feeling her nestle into my chest while I sing her a song. I am her mom. I am the one and only person that she trust and wants any time of the day. I am the one whose smell makes her feel comfortable and safe. My voice is the one that she has heard since she had little growing ear buds in my tummy. I am so grateful for her and the chance that I have to be building a relationship with her that I hope will last through her whole life. I want to be the kind of mom that she will still want to tuck her in every night and sing her twinkle twinkle little star. 

I love being Brynlee's mommy :)