What are your favorite rituals with your baby?

maureenmce

As I'm slowly feeling more like myself and getting into a groove with this motherhood thing, I find I really look forward to certain parts of the day, and they're not at all what I expected.  For example, my little girl haaaates bathtime, which was something I thought she'd love!  But one thing that I adore is that every morning my husband wakes her up a few minutes before she's hungry for her morning feeding and brings her into the bed with us to play and get snuggles.  She opens her eyes and for the last three days we've gotten a BIG smile from her, whenever she sees us.  And the three of us just have some quiet cooing and smiling time for a few minutes before the morning rush.  That's definitely the highlight of my day.  Second best is a lullaby I've been singing her, which I thought was an actual lullaby, but in googling and talking to my mom, I found out my parents made it up, so it's kind of a special thing to pass down to the next generation.  Also, as she gets bigger and more aware, she has started to enjoy the lullaby.  Last night I got big smiles as I sang it to her and I didn't even care that it took her forever to get to sleep.  

I'm really looking forward to more rituals developing as she gets older.  (She'll be 8 weeks on Monday.)  What are some of your favorite things to do with your LO?

teachmegs817

I look forward to when he first wakes up in the morning.  I leave for work around 7:15, and usually DS is up by then.  It makes me sad on the occasional day when he isn't up by this time.  Usually, if he has a whacky sleep schedule and gets up for a feeding around 4-5 am, I can count on him still being asleep when I leave at 7:15.  It bums me out to miss it, because first thing in the morning he smiles SO big when he sees me. It melts my heart.  I also love when he sees DH when he gets home from work.  He leaves for work before LO is up for the morning, so to see him light up when he gets home from work, is amazing.  

SBH041815

I love waking up to LO. We lay in bed and talk/coo and snuggle. Then I sing a good morning song I made up to her as I get her dressed. 

I also love our evening bath time. She loves to be in the water and be a naked baby! I pour water out of a cup into the bath so she can watch and she's fascinated by it. 

I have started to read books to her every day and I look forward to incorporating it into our bedtime ritual soon. With my other kids, bedtime stories were one of my favorite things, and I'm really excited to start it with this one too. 

cyanope

 It seems like all of us love the mornings! That's also my favorite ritual. Pulling the baby into bed with me and feeding her, and then just enjoying her smiles and coos. She's just so dang happy in the mornings.

krrpe99

Mine is morning too! Whenever DD gets up in the morning, I'll breast feed her on the couch. It's still pretty dark and quiet, and I let her eat and nap all she wants. Even though I'm with her all day, I feel like this is our special time. 
I only have one more week of maternity leave, so I'm pretty sure this is going to change with my schedule. I'm super sad about it. 

mwalles

My favorite ritual is bath time, I only bathe her every other day usually because I don't want to dry out her skin, but she loves kicking around and afterwards I always message her with baby oil and she'll wiggle around like it feels soooo good! I also really love our "talk time!" Usually after her first nap I'll put my foot on my knee and rest her in the crook of it and she'll coo and smile and we will have a little conversation! I like to imagine she's telling me about her dreams more likely though she's just telling me how it's gonna be!  

Kimberlyain

Mine is morning too! I sing a good morning song, the same one every day, and she just started recognizing it. She can be totally fussy and I start singing the song and she just gives me the biggest smile. 

maureenmce

Seems like we have a lot of happy babies and mamas in the morning!    I think this child could actually do the impossible - turn me into a morning person!  (After 35 years of being decidedly NOT a morning person, haha.)

Cricket99

Also morning here! He's all smiles for 15 or so minutes before he goes into hanger mode. DH and I have no idea how he is such a morning person as neither of us have ever been particularly pleasant before 10 am. The smiles and giggles are worth every second of the 7 am wake up

nackie

Mornings are the worst for me.  He always wakes up at least an hour before I'm ready to be awake for the day.  I make DH take him and give him a bottle so I can get an extra half hour of sleep.  My favorite is the bedtime ritual.  He always does his little happy dance while he's getting swaddled and I love watching his little eyes flutter as he falls asleep

fishee333

I love hearing about these!

I thought my favorite would be a nightly bath routine, but LO hates baths. I'm so not a morning person but LO is so I ended up starting a morning routine we could both enjoy. After we eat/change and head downstairs, we say our good mornings. We say good morning to all our pets (3 chickens, 2 cats), neighbors, animals outside (squirrels, birds, etc), and plenty of random things around the house (the lamp she loves lol, pictures, etc). Then she plays on her playmat while I make and eat my morning tea and oatmeal. Then we talk and play until she seems sleepy, and I put her down for a nap. 

SBH041815

@fishee333 that's adorable! I love how you make the rounds saying your good mornings 

When your LO gets bigger how cute would it be if she does that herself in a sweet baby voice! ❤️