Bad Habit????

Before Ford was born Erik and I had firmly decided that we were going to follow the Babywise method of sleep training. I had several friends that had done it and had great success in getting their babies to sleep through the night. I am proud to say that we followed it and too had great success, albeit there were times that I was wondering if I had lost my mind waking up my sleeping baby in the middle of the night!! Ford was pretty text book and fell right into step with what the book had said. One of the most important keys to the sleep training is teaching your baby how to fall asleep on their own. This one can be tough because it can mean having to listen to your baby cry. I am not a big believer in letting your baby cry it out, especially a newborn, but there were some times that we let him cry. When Ford was about 3 months old, and his spitting up was in it's prime, our pediatrician suggested that I "top him off" before his nap either with a bottle or nursing him. This worked great except that I started to love snuggling him tight and watching those sleepy eyes sink into a deep sleep!!! I kept telling myself  "this isn't what the book says to do you are creating a bad habit!!!!".

All that being said, more than six months later I still rock him to sleep for both of his naps and at night......I know, I know bad habit, right???? Although it is time consuming, inconvenient and at times frustrating it is almost always the sweetest moment of my day. It is the only time when he is awake that he is perfectly still. He loves to have his hair and face stroked as we glide back and forth. He will hold onto his last waking moment as hard as he can, his heavy eyelids fighting off sleep. Sometimes when I am rocking him, and I am in deep thought of what I "should" be doing instead of rocking him, I look down and he has a huge smile sticking out of the sides of his paci with the sweetest look of adoration!  My ability to love him unconditionally is at it's peak when I feel his warm little body wrapped up in my arms, and hear that certain rhythmic breathing that means he is asleep. No matter what has happened up to that point in the day somehow I look at him through an angelic lens and all is good! It is in those sweet moments that I think to myself THIS is how God intended it to be!

So, bad habit???? Probably, but for now this sweet moment never gets old!