New sleep routine

Things are again changing in our home. Regarding sleep and Adelaide's sleep routine.

I was already expecting it.. Because these things always change. They change somehow naturally - when one thing doesn't work anymore, and we find another way, that works. It's good to go with the flow. A lot easier and more pleasant for everyone.

One evening I was counting.. How many different ways of putting her to sleep we have already had.. And there have been many:

• In the first days/weeks she just fell asleep anywhere, anytime.
• Then she got a bit cranky in the evening, and I used the techniques, that I had read about in the 5 "S's" book: we swaddled her and rocked from side to side in our arms. At first it worked.
• But in some time.. It didn't work anymore, or it got too hard. Even though I had fed her, she still wasn't happy, being rocked and then put down, we discovered.. she only was happy to be at the breast! :D (Now I think.. How naive we were. Thankfully, came to our senses and discovered, that - hello! - baby wants to fall asleep while nursing!)
• Then we discovered, that she can nurse and nurse forever. At first tried to do it in the bedroom, but spending many hours like that every evening made me a bit depressed, so I said: what the heck! And took her with me to the living room, where she could just nurse as long as she wanted, lying on the breastfeeding pillow in my lap, while we were watching Downton Abbey. :) I knew this wasn't like the most ideal scenario, but she didn't care, she was just enjoying the breast, while I was enjoying some nice time with my Husband. Everyone was happy. I think this lasted for a couple of months.
• Sometime around 2-3 months, when we had come back from a longer trip, I decided to change it, to put her to sleep earlier. At 20:00, after every-evening bath, I went in bed with her, and again - she nursed for as long as she wanted, until she fell asleep. At first it took an hour. But it actually worked perfectly! Later it took even as little as 15-20 minutes! And we had a couple of hours free at evening (once in a while nursing her back to sleep, of course). This was a very nice time for us.. :)
• But all good things come to an end, somehow, when autumn started, maybe it was also connected with the time change, but it somehow didn't work anymore. At first it sometimes didn't work.. Then it didn't work ever again. Even if she fell asleep around 20:00, she was up in an hour, all ready to party! She started also sleeping longer (until 10:00, when she was little, in the first months, she sometimes slept until 7:30), and staying up late - just hanging with us, until we all went to sleep around 23:00 (just nursed her and fell asleep all together). 
• At some point.. surprisingly, it got impossible to nurse her to sleep! (Unless to do it around midnight..) She just was refusing, didn't want to sleep. In my frustration, Husband took over the sleep routine, and turned out - he can put her to sleep by rocking in arms in like 5 minutes! :) And this worked perfectly for the last couple of months. He put her to sleep around 22:00, when she woke up, I nursed her back to sleep.

I don't put nearly enough of breastfeeding pictures in this blog..

..and here we are now. Suddenly, she refuses to go to sleep! Even though she is tired and it's sleeping time (after washing up, around 21:00 or 22:00), when Husband takes her in the dark bedroom and tries to hold in a lying position, she just starts screaming! And is happy and excited immediately, when is taken back to living room. Also, when she sees any tiniest light coming from the living room, she knows, where the party is on, and has to get there!

 
Well, it makes sense. Our baby is growing up. :) She understands now, that she is going to be put to sleep, and she doesn't want to go sleep.. But wants to be with us, where the fun is.

Whaat.. I have to go to sleep?!

I actually expected this change. And in some way, am happy about it. Because sometime eventually I wanted to introduce this nice sleep routine. You know, the cliche - after washing up, child crawls under blankets, then we read some books, sing some songs, say an evening verse and prayer, and she goes to sleep! ;)
I know that some people do this since birth, but it hasn't somehow worked out for us. As it always was like this: when its time so sleep, then we sleep. No time for books or singing.

However, now we can finally do it! I understand it like this: she is way too excited in the evening. An hour before bedtime we must start the routine: wash, then go in the quiet, dark bedroom, putting the living room lights off, so they don't tempt her. There she nurses a bit, but then usually wants to crawl away. I (or Husband, we can change here) lie in the bed there with her, letting her crawl and play in the bed, but not out from it. Read a book, sing.. She actually is really cute in this time, it's a nice quality time, fun as well, and full of cuddles. :) She cuddles and nurses on and off.. Until.. Eventually.. She falls asleep next to me.

We have done this for a couple of nights now. Only thing is, that it takes more than an hour.. And it puts me to sleep as well.. :D But it's normal, I guess. Hopefully, with time.. It would take a bit less of time, or we could start earlier (maybe she'll start waking up earlier, as it gets lighter), so we have a couple of hours to ourselves as well.

...

..Daytime naps are also weirdly changing. For months and months she always had one long nap for 3-4 hours. But lately it has gone to 2 shorter naps.. I'm not sure yet. For a couple of days she has also slept more restlessly in the stroller.
(She never has slept in the bed during the day. For the first 3 months she slept either in the wrap or Stokke cradle, but since September she sleeps in the stroller during the day.)
I am actually scared of the time, when she doesn't sleep in the stroller anymore.. :D I have no idea, what will we do! But it will all work out, I guess..

I'm hoping it's ok for a while still, that we can first work out a nice evening routine, and then think about daytime changes.