When routines bite you in the butt

I'm really good when it comes to following Telesas bedtime routine: bath, book, song, then bed. Most of the nights I'm more than happy to do all of these things, some nights I'm tired and only do them because I have to. Tonight was either of those nights, I was so tired and just feeling really lazy after a long HOT day. It was her bedtime and she was really tired and super fussy so I knew bath time would be more of a chore than fun play time tonight. I decided to do something I do once in a blue moon: skip the bath.

I read to her and sang to her as usual, and I tried to rock her to sleep and she only got more mad. In a desperate attempt for quietness I nursed her hoping that would put her to sleep. Nope, that just refreshed her and she was more awake than before I nursed her, great. I don't think I've mentioned this before, but Telesa can be very determined when it comes to staying awake if she doesn't want to go to sleep. There's stubborn, and then there's Telesa, my little trooper.

I love bed time routines, don't get me wrong. I think their great for teaching babies about when its bedtime and routine is awesome, structure is definitely a good thing. The problem is I think it was a little to effective in my case. My daughter refused to go to sleep without that dang bath! I tried to get her to go to sleep for over an hour and a half and wasn't any closer than when I started! Finally, at quarter to 9 (way past her bedtime I might add), I figured I'd just give my little monkey a bath even though she didn't need one because she was swimming earlier and its not like I don't bath her every single day. In the tub, she finally started yawning and rubbing her eyes lots like I wanted her to for awhile. After her bath, it took only ten minutes to get her to go to sleep. Wow, I learned my lesson!