Bed time

Baby Cakes loves going to bed!! She gets so excited every night I sing her the "Lets go to bed song" and we start our bed time routine.
Eliza goes to bed between 8 and 8:30 nearly every night. She sleeps about 8.5 to 9 hours straight. Although the past two nights, it has been 11 straight hours. IT IS HEAVENLY!! She is an angel.

Bed time is a special and spiritual bonding time for the two of us. Our routine is the same every night. At around 7:40, we do the hokey pokey while we change her diaper and put on her pajamas. She gets a big smile on her face, and really gets into the "shake it all about" mode. I feed her around 7:45 while we have family scripture study. We read a short story (some nights it's shorter than others). Then I look into her eyes, smile, and rock her while I sing two songs "I love to see the temple" and "I am a Child of God" in that order. Then, I tell her I love her, that I will come get her in the morning; I kiss her on the forehead then the cheek, and put her in her crib. She looks up at me and smiles, giggles, and starts talking. I pull her blanket just up to her chest where she likes it, offer her pink bink, stroke her cheek, say its night night time, and tell her I love her again. Bruce comes in to tell her he loves her, and gives her a kiss. Then I turn out the nightlight, shut the door, and go downstairs.

Sometimes she takes the binky and sometimes she doesn't. Most of the time she will fall asleep within 5 minutes if not sooner. Sometimes she will cry a little. When this happens, Bruce will go up and say I love you, then I will say I love you and offer her back her binky again. She will take it, give it two sucks, spit it out, and go right to sleep. Easy as pie!! I hope it stays that way.

She usually wakes up sometime between 5 and 6, normally 5:30. Then she stays awake until 7 and will doze again until 8. Sometimes she will wake up at 4, nurse and go back to sleep until 7; although that doesn't happen very often. I've tried putting her to bed later than 8 so she will sleep later in the morning, but Baby Cakes definitely wants to go to bed at 8, and she wakes up at the same time anyway. The past couple of nights though, she has slept until 6:30 or 7. I submit my will to the will of the child and bedtime becomes a piece of cake.

Now for the special, spiritual bonding moment. No matter how tired or grumpy Baby Cakes may be - she completely changes when I begin to sing the primary songs. While I sing, she will look at me with love and adoration. Her mouth and tongue begin to move as if she is trying to sing along or tell me something about what she remembers on the other side of the veil. She smiles, giggles, and squeals with delight. She smiles the biggest when I get to "a family is forever," and "to live with him someday." It's almost as if she knows what that will be like and wants that. It nearly brings tears to my eyes because I want that too. Through the gospel of Jesus Christ and temple ordinances, we can be together forever Baby Cakes, and that is definitely something to be happy about. I really can't describe the way she looks at me - it's so sweet. Bruce mentioned that he would be jealous if it didn't make him so happy.

In those few moments of singing to my baby girl and seeing how happy she is, the love of God comes pouring out. I feel the spirit so strongly as the truthfulness of what I am singing to her is made evident. It is a touching, spiritual, and tender moment of my day. I look forward to bed time almost as much as Baby Cakes, simply to feel that bonding love. I am so blessed that I get to experience that every night. We chose her name because I liked it, and we read on a website that it means "sent from God." Eliza is truly sent from God, and I am so blessed to be her mother.

I didn't want to video tape it because it is my special moment. Then, I decided that I wanted to keep this special moment in my memory forever. This is the best we could do - I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.