"Rub My Belly, Mommy"

After reading an article in one of the many parenting magazines I get, I decided to try adding something new to our bedtime routine. The article was a short one that basically said if your kid is having a hard time falling asleep during the summer because it's still light out, to try rubbing their back or head for a few minutes to put them in a relaxed state.

As you all know from my post earlier this week, we are no strangers here to bed time issues. Even now that we make the boys fall asleep in separate rooms, they still can take 30-45 minutes to fall asleep and I suspect a lot of this is because it's still so light outside. This past week I decided to give this back rub idea a shot.

Every night I spend about 5 minutes sitting or laying next to each kiddo rubbing their back, belly or head and it is wonderful. Sometimes I'm not sure how much it's actually helping with the bed time routine, but I love that quiet, one on one time with my boys. See, I never got to rock my babies to sleep (which is probably best) so I feel like I missed out on that whole quiet, magical time of just staring at your relaxed, almost-asleep baby.

During this new ritual the boys just stare at me with their big, blue eyes (except for Jackson, who sometimes will squeeze his eyes shut so hard that his eyebrows wrinkle). Sometimes we whisper about the day, but usually we just sit in silence. It's so peaceful and I love it. I love the quiet time with my rapidly growing and increasingly rowdy boys.

I think the boys love it too because the first thing Jackson said last night when I came in to kiss him good-night was "Rub my belly, Mommy". Made my heart melt.

Don't forget to add your question(s) to my Burning Questions post from yesterday! I'll answer them all tomorrow and be sure to throw in some pictures - I know I've been light on pictures here this week.