Rock-a-Bye Baby

It's happening. I feel like I saw the first drop of water fall before a rainstorm, like I can pinpoint the exact moment growing up begins. William does not want to be rocked to sleep anymore. He wants to fall asleep on his own, in his crib.

For the first 7 months of his life, I nursed and rocked William to sleep for every nap and bedtime and middle of the night waking that occurred. I know, I was crazy.  After seven long months of functioning at half-mast, Don and I decided to consider doing a little something called sleep training. Don't scoff; it 100% worked for us from day one. William is sleepy but awake when I lay him in his crib at night, so I don't get to hold him nestled against me as he sleeps anymore.

When he was about 6 weeks old.

But this weekend he had a virus. The only relief he seemed to get was when I held him very snugly, so it occurred to me that he might want to be swaddled. Mind you, he hasn't been swaddled since he was about two months old. He LOVED it. He felt so comforted that he went right to sleep in my arms, in the daylight, in the living room. And I realized that my snuggly sleepy infant is no more. He is already a crawler and a light socket seeker. He is my growing boy, my little explorer, but I will be here when he needs me to rock him to sleep.

Last Saturday.