We’ve finally established somewhat of a bedtime routine, wherein all the boys and I pile into one little bedroom for the night. Here’s how it usually goes down:

• Kramer (our husky): He’ll gingerly trot over to each side of our bed, put his muzzle on the mattress, give a gentle sigh in hopes that we’ll pet him one last time, and then go to bed for the night. He gets his Kong chew toy (his “woobie”) and curls up into a tiny ball under a concentrated stream of cool air from the vent.
• Cosmo (our ridgeback): He’s usually already in his crate by around 4 PM. When he’s being slightly less lazy than usual, he’ll sit up in his crate when we start getting ready for bed, and make really loud yawns, stretches and sighs. Since Cosmo loves his crate so much, he’s basically worn his dog bed to a pulp. So sometimes he’ll whimper for us to let him in Kramer’s crate so he can sleep on the cushier mattress.

• Sushi (our cat): Being the rather timid fellow that he is, he’s actually afraid of the baby. At night he’s usually asleep belly-up in the guest or media room, but will come into our room at bedtime and stare at us from atop the dressers until we go to sleep. Then he’ll go sleep on the back of the sofa until morning. That way, if something scares him during the night, he’ll have plenty of places to hide underneath the den furniture. And if we wake up throughout the night to feed the baby, he can quickly steal some loving time by wrapping around our legs as we warm up some milk in the kitchen.
• Levi: after his last feeding or bath depending on the night, we change him, put on his wires for his apnea monitor, and put him in a little shoebox-like contraption called a co-sleeper in between our pillows. He’s pretty small anyway, but he looks especially tiny in a big-person bed! We’ve noticed too that babies are very bow-legged. We sometimes put him on his side, and his little legs just dangle in the air like he’s propped up on an invisible saddle. His feet come nowhere near touching each other. And apparently baby dreams are all about milk, because he’ll quickly start suckling in his sleep, amidst the tiniest little breathing sounds and sighs. It is SO cute!

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