Parenting

Logical thoughts are going through my head right now that it is late and I should be getting ready for bed rather than starting a blog post.

 I will quickly be reminded of this poor decision tomorrow morning when it is time to get up and all I want to do is pull the comforter up over my head and sleep for 10 more minutes.

 I have been toying with a post lately that I know getting it out there will make my 12:00 bedtime worth it, because it is my life right now.

As I rocked my sweet 21 month old to bed tonight and watched his eyelids get heavy until he was almost asleep, followed by a sudden sit up to point out every feature on my face.

Eye? Yes baby that my eye.

Mouooth (that's how he says it)? Uh huh, that's my mouth.

 

Then he would continue to carefully place each clump of hair carefully behind my shoulder, because apparently little man does not like to lay on hair.

He would then lay his sweet little head back down and continue to doze.

In my effort to get him to sleep this slightly frustrated me, which turned into a laugh, because I KNOW I will look back on these endless rocking sessions with such fondness.

So, as we rocked some more I pondered about all the parenting advice I got when I was pregnant and he was a newborn.

 

 

 

Parenting advice that I thought was the law because I had never done it before and surely everyone else knew my baby better than me.

 

I spent the first 6 months exhausting myself trying to get my little one to conform to everyone else's advice, comparing him constantly to other babies his age and reading books that had "all the answeres". I found myself utterly frustrated and fed up when he had nothing to do with it.

Why was MY baby the difficult different one?

 

He cried, A LOT..... was only happy when I was holding or nursing him....was not sleeping longer than 2 hour stretches... and turning this momma's world upside down. 

 

 

Ok, so back to rocking my almost 2 year old to sleep, which I have done every.single.night since he was born. Seriously every night!

 

 

It was unanimous that you MUST not rock your baby to sleep everynight or you will create a rod for your own back and your baby will want to be rocked until he is 10.

 

Looking down at him tonight and the fleeting moments that he will actually want to be rocked by me, I am okay with that.

Baby, if you want to be rocked for 6 solid years, bring it on.

Your sweet sighs of comfort and sweat beads that form on your nose from nuzzling into my chest are gladly accepted as long as you like.

 

The day my sweet husband sat me down and I quote, "Alexis, you have got to quit taking everyone else's advice and realize that YOU are his momma,

YOU know him better than anybody, and

YOU have got to learn to trust your heart on this stuff"

is the day that my life changed as a momma and

 I became the momma that I never thought I would be.

 

Maybe one day I will get into my opinion on the cry it out method, when to take away bottles and pacifiers, etc.., but tonight I will enjoy that my sweet boy still enjoys being rocked and rock we will!