My second child did not particularly sleep. I do not mean this in the traditional wakes every 2-3 hours as a newborn sense, although he did that too. I mean I had a 6 month old who you could sometimes rock and sing and coddle into falling asleep for a maximum of 2-3 hours, but more likely 45 minutes or even just 5 minutes. Eventually I called in professional help. Don’t judge. It’s some of the best money I have ever spent.
Everyone knows (they do right?) that reading a book is a perfect component of a bedtime routine. We always did a story, a song and then into the crib. It worked beautifully with my first, but with my second, all bets were off. And so, in our grand quest to fix his sleep, we were faced with standardizing his sleep rituals to the nth degree, at least until he figured it out. This means we read the same bedtime story every night, every nap, for weeks. And let me tell you, you’d better love that book.
Someone will give a copy of Goodnight Moon. (It may even be you, but we’ll get to that in a later post). There are so many wonderful other options out there for lulling your little one to sleep.
A Book of Sleep by Il Sung Na features a wide variety of animals and all of the ways they sleep, highlighted by absolutely dreamy illustrations. In the final pages, the watchful owl who has watched over the others all night finally drifts off.
Animals of the Native Northwest: I own Goodnight World and I ordered I’m Dreaming for my cousin. Absolutely everyone who sees Goodnight World cannot believe how stunning the illustrations are. The back fully credits the Native American and First Nations artists and includes their tribal affiliations.
The Going to Bed Book by Sandra Boynton No one needs your help to discover Sandra Boynton. I own more of her books than I ever imagined (or wanted). They are ubiquitous. But the book I ended up reading ceaselessly? Every nap, every bedtime to my non-sleeping child? It was this one. It’s far and away my favorite Boynton, even if the animals do inexplicably take a bath before they go to exercise.
In checking out sleepytime board books, I actually stumbled into a treasure trove of beautiful bedtime picture books which I am definitely telling you about at some future date because they are wonderful and soothing and I love them (just maybe not for the pipsqueakiest of pipsqueaks).
Final choice: I’m Dreaming of Animals of the Native Northwest
