I did something tonight that I haven’t done since the girls were practically newborns: I rocked Althea to sleep.
She startled out of a dream, wailing mournfully. Nightmare or what, I don’t know. I gave it a minute and a half before recognizing that she wasn’t going to settle on her own.
Cracked the door open. Tiptoed to her crib. Picked up her fuzzy, footed-jammies body. Her tears flowed. I swayed my body back and forth, rubbing her back and breathing my mama comfort into her chest.
The wails stopped. She heaved a sigh and rested her head on my left shoulder. I continued rocking until I felt her body once again go limp with sleep.
***
I don’t get to spend much time with the girls one-on-one. If I’m honest, I’ve felt that Althea has an independence about her that makes me sort of incidental at times. Silly, I know. She’s only 14 months old. But tonight reminded me that she’s still a needy infant. The push and pull of a child’s expanding self.
Van has this moment when he wakes up that he always wants to “hold you.” In our busy lives, I feel so fiercely protective of just that five minutes of time I get to spend with him every morning. So much so, I’ve already discussed with Derek about if I’m going to have that time when the baby comes. He’s assured me we’ll still have Van and Momma time.
My daughter was like that. So gosh darn independent from the get go. So intuitive and just knowing of everything already as if she has a very old soul.
I rarely rock M either.
Aww! Rock them to sleep while you can! My oldest started driving this week and I miss those days!
My favorite motherhood saying:
“In motherhood, the days are long but the years are short.”
xo!
m
i loved reading this… so delicate.