a bedtime story

Jude is only about a month old but he already has a mini routine around bedtime. Every few days he gets a bath before bed. We usually wrap him in a hooded towel. The cuteness character heads on these are more for mom and dad at this point than Jude, who is still trying to discover that he has hands.

Jude chillin in alligator towel

Next Greg checks and changes Jude's diaper. Actually if you haven't heard, Greg changed every baby diaper for the first several days of Jude's life. It was his daddy task. And it was awesome for mom who was recovering. Finally on day 3 or 4 he showed Grandma Carole and Kara his diaper changing routine and they began to help.

Dad on diaper duty

After a diaper change Jude heads to the crib to get swaddled. If you don't know, it begins in the hospital where they wrap babies tightly in blankets like little caterpillars. Some experts say it makes baby more secure by recreating a 'womb' environment. Not having seen the womb environment, we're not sure, but we do know he sleeps much better when he isn't flailing his arms around and knocking himself awake on accident.

Prepare to swaddle

We don't use blankets to swaddle Jude. Instead we have these great swaddlers that you tuck and velcro. Thanks Tori for the great suggestion.

Caterpillar baby

After the swaddle Jude gets one more meal before bed. Both mommy and Jude found it best not to include a photo of this part. After that its off to sleep for baby Jude, usually around 9:30pm.