Calleigh's Bedtime Routine

Calleigh has never really had a bedtime routine as such. She slept pretty well since her very first night, much to our surprise and delight!  

As I had a Cesarean we spent the first two nights in hospital and as I could barely move I preferred to keep her on my chest. That way I could easily give her whatever she needed in the night and didn't have to try to get out of bed first. When we got back home she was still sleeping well and not much changed, she stayed with Daddy for a few nights whilst I recovered and from then on spent her nights co-sleeping in bed with us.

At about four months old she somehow managed to get over Paul and fell out of bed. She didn't cry, didn't hurt herself but instead just stayed fast asleep. It was pretty scary for us so at that point we decided it would be a good idea to move her into her Moses Basket. She slept in there for a couple of nights but never really settled well so we moved her straight into her cot instead. She took to hr cot really well and slept through the night most nights. By 6 months old she would usual wake about 9 or 10pm for a feed and then go back down until the morning. I couldn't really have asked for a better sleeper, she was perfect.

As she got older we went through a few changes, we stayed a Mee-Maws house a lot whilst Paul was away with work and then we moved her halfway across the world into a completely different timezone. We now had to get her used to a different house, bed and bedtime.

At first it was a little difficult to maintain a routine as it was all new to us as well. It didn't help that our bedroom was downstairs (and still is). Nevertheless after a couple of weeks my little sleeper was back. Although we did find that bedtime kept getting later and later each night. What started of as going to bed at 7:30 somehow made it's way to 9:30! 

Now we have a toddler on our hands and we have just introduced a toddler bed (no more bars to keep her in!) things have become a bit more of a challenge. It's not so much a challenge to get her to sleep but more to get her to actually stay in bed! All she wants to do is to play with her toys, read a zillion books and run around! Also she only wants Daddy to take her to bed (I think she knows he will play around with her more where as I wont). Once he does finally manage to get her to stay in bed she is asleep pretty quickly and usually sleeps through the night. Although there have been occasions where she has woken up crying.
It's a work in progress!