Bedtime Rituals

I and Sarayu were deeply in love with each other. Those who saw us together remarked that we were made for each other and we shall live a long happy life together. We always smiled while talking and never fought with each other. There were many things that have contributed to those joyous moments. But the most important of them were talks about our future children, how we would take care of them, love them and be good parents. Talking about ourselves would be selfishness, talking about our future children was a bit far-fetched but it helped reinforce the thoughts that our love would be successful and we would get married and have children. A happy couple would turn into a happy family. And it did happen. We had our first child in the first year of our marriage and since then, the smiles only increased further. Every moment we spend with our child reinforces the bonds between us. We talk about our child’s present and the future with enthusiasm. The most important of things are the bedtime rituals - making our one year old baby boy ready for a peaceful sleep.

The first thing that we do is to give him a bath. He surely isn’t old enough to go out, play under the sun in the playground and become so sweaty that he needs to takes a bath to get a good sleep. But still we give him a bath with warm water as our family doctor said that the temperature of our body drops at night and a bath with warm water will help the baby to relax and stay comfortable during the sleep. Apart from the health benefits, the bath with warm water also allows him to indulge in playfulness splashing the water all around the bath tub.

An hour before the sleeping time, we dim out the lights in our house and switch of all electronic entertainment devices like the television and music player. I do not want my son to be one of those current generation kids who can’t live for even a single second without a smartphone or a tablet in their hands. Also, dimming out the lights instead of switching them off at once before sleeping allows a gradual transition from the state of being awake to the sleeping state.

On some days, we recite in his ears verses from the sacred Hindu texts, slowly and in a low tone. He is so young that he doesn’t even understand the simple sentences that we speak to him. And I’m sure that he wouldn’t be able to understand the complicated verses. But nevertheless, we recite them every day with a hope that he would start understanding them some day and imbibe the teachings of those sacred texts and become a good human being.

Finally, my wife sings a lullaby for him. She learnt music during her college days which is of immense benefit to us now. Hearing the lullaby, our son goes into a deep sleep in almost no time. Her voice is like that of a nightingale, sweet and melodious. She sings on various themes and in a variety of languages that even I find them interesting and sometimes, even I go to sleep along with my son before her lullaby ends.

These are our bedtime rituals that take place every day without fail in my home. Each of them contribute their part in helping my son have a good sleep and wake up with a fresh mind and mood and spreads smiles in our lives.

Check out Pampers - http://www.rewardme.in/tag/Pampers

This post has been written for Bedtime Rituals campaign.