ROCKING MY ‘BABY’ TO SLEEP

March 3, 2008 by Nicole · 6 Comments
Filed under: Babies, Thankful

Last night my 4-year-old son was very tired. We played outside most of the day. Well, my husband and him played mostly, while I cleaned house, got taxes done, paid bills, planned lunches and dinners for the week and did three loads of laundry.

After dinner we played some more until it was apparent that bedtime should be moved up a few minutes. I saw my son getting that tired and cranky look in his eye…

‘I have just a short window,’ I thought. But it was too late at that point (ugh- rookie mistake) and I knew there would be some kind of power play upstairs.

Turned out, it was just over teeth brushing. After several minutes of negotiating, if that is what you would call it- aka: trying to persuade him to do it and then resorting to making it a game (that’s what I call it in my house), the teeth were brushed.

On to his room we went. He was still a little bent out of shape, so I picked up my 4-year-old (my cardio) and sat down in the rocking chair. I started to rock him and he took to it like he was a baby. He nestled down in my arms and started to relax.

I could have put him in bed at that point with no problem. I was about to… and then I realized I had an opportunity I RARELY get. I could rock him to sleep.

I spent the next 10 minutes rocking him. I closed my eyes from time to time and completely enjoyed every second. He fell asleep in my arms and I kept rocking slowly for a couple more minutes.

I looked down at him ‘sleeping like a baby’ in my arms. My big boy, whose favorite line is, “I can do it” looked like he did when he was 12 months old. I stared at his little cheeks, the flawless baby skin and his long eyelashes resting comfortably.

“I love this moment,” I thought.

I put him in bed and closed the door and went downstairs.

My husband grinned, “You got to rock him to sleep, didn’t you?”

I nodded with a big smile.

“Good stuff,” my husband said.

“Great stuff,” I replied.

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