Like father, like daughter

 

Since Derek hasn’t had to go to work, he has been taking on a lot of the parenting responsibility. Its great because I get a break after a year and a half of doing this parenting thing by myself 90% of the time and before I’m going to be alone of the next 2 months, but also because it gives Derek and Madeline some much needed bonding time. They haven’t ever gotten to spend this much time together and she is loving it. Sometimes she even calls for him when she wakes up from her nap, which is a big deal. It has also given Derek a chance to try his own parenting techniques and allowed Madeline to learn a new routine. Part of that has been Derek cracking the code to putting Madeline down for a nap without nursing, or even really crying all that much. Every afternoon, 30 minutes before nap time, they sit down in the recliner and watch an episode of Little Bill together. For some reason, this show seems to make her really sleepy, and he can put her in the crib when the episode is over. Sometimes she cries a little, but never for more than a few minutes. This is a vast improvement over my attempts at getting her to nap, which usually involve nursing her to sleep and attempting to either get out of the bed and leave her there or carry her sleeping to the crib, both of which usually fail. I tried the Little Bill technique myself, but it didn’t work quite as well for me. It’ll be sad day when Daddy leaves and when don’t have help for naps anymore. On the bright side, she does go down without crying most nights, even when I put her in the crib, so maybe that will carry over. Or she’ll just have a complete meltdown because everything changed and nothing will work. Let’s hope not.

Oh – and a quick note I forgot to add to her 18/19 month post…she has changed her schedule dramatically. She seems to be waking up at 6:45-7:45 AM, no matter what time we put her to sleep, so now she goes to bed at 7:30. This has left me with an astounding amount of free time at night and I can go to bed before 1 AM while still getting things done. Its amazing!

Watching Little Bill together