Night time bonding

Our 8:00pm feeding is usually pretty crazy. The babies go over to devotions at 7:15 to be held by the older kids. We usually take the bottles over to them at devotions, so once devotions is over, we technically only have to change diapers and put them to bed. This rarely happens. Usually, there are babies who haven't eaten their whole bottle so we have to re-feed them. We appreciate all the help from the older kids because it takes a much shorter amount of time to feed the babies! All the babies are usually in bed by 8:15, but they are not generally calm, quiet, and asleep. Lately, the babies seem more lively than ever at this time, so we've been spending some quality bonding time with them. Some babies require only that you put their pacifier back in their mouths while others demand another bottle. Some will go to sleep simply be having their back patted for about five minutes, while others are just not ready to go to bed and want to play. This can be tiring at the end of the day and sometimes it's easy to get frustrated. Last night, most of the babies actually went to bed, but there was one little girl who kept crying. She had already been given a second bottle, and still carried on. I pulled her out of her crib and took her to the kitchen to rock her (isn't that where you keep your rocking chair?!) She snuggled against me, stuck her thumb in her mouth, and I thought "Oh good, she'll be out in no time!" Boy was I wrong! For the next half hour, she smiled and talked to me! Hard to be frustrated and crabby when that's the picture you see looking down at her. :-) As exhausting as these evenings can be, they are sometimes the best times to bond with the babies.