Sleep walking

The thing we've come to understand about babies is that they're all about timing. Take a typical night, for example. If we nail the timing, then we're rewarded with a quiet, relaxing evening. If we blow it, then we're facing several trips back and forth to the nursery, trying to coax a none-too-cooperative infant off to sleep.

We like to start Perryn's nightly ritual at 7:30 or so. We give him a bath, or maybe just change his diaper, and dress him in a fresh pair of pajamas. Then we feed him some cereal and finish that off with a bottle. If all goes well, he's comfy and content and drifting off to sleep by the end of the bottle. We put him down at 8:30 and get the rest of the evening to relax or get other stuff done.

Our nightly ritual

Bath	+ PJs	+ Bottle	= Sleeping baby

Of course, it's not as simple as it sounds. For one thing, the successful execution of the nightly ritual requires proper setup in the afternoon. If we haven't allowed enough time between his previous bottle, then he may not be hungry for dinner. Or, if he naps too late in the afternoon, then he might not be sleepy at bedtime.

And so it was that Rachelle and I found ourselves the other night: we had just finished eating. It was still only 6:45, so we had about forty-five minutes to kill before starting our routine. We decided to take a walk around the neighborhood. The only complication is that Perryn almost always falls asleep in his stroller, and it was way too close to bedtime for him to be napping.

No problem, we thought, we'll break out the baby carrier. We'd tried it a couple of times before, but Perryn wasn't quite big enough to fit in it comfortably (faithful readers may recall a previous post on the subject). We reasoned that he'd be far less likely to fall asleep in the carrier than he otherwise would in the stroller.

Well ... guess what? It turns out that babies can sleep, like, anywhere.

Perryn really took to the carrier. He didn't fuss a bit as we walked the neighborhood. I think he enjoyed watching all the scenery for a change. But after about twenty minutes, the soothing motion of the carrier got the better of him and he was out. We carried his limp little body back home and had to wake him up so that we could change him, and feed him, and put him to bed.

Perryn falls asleep in his baby carrier

And how did we fare later that evening? Well, as I recall, he was a little less patient than usual when eating his cereal. And he was a little fussier when we put him to bed. But Rachelle and I did get one more fond memory that we get to keep along with the others. And I think it was worth it.