Rock a Bye Baby

I always say I'm a Mom first and a Photographer second (err well maybe third since Wife comes before that). I love being a mom and have always loved babies. Long before I even thought of having a Luke I use to help put my baby sister and brother down for naps by sitting in our old wooden rocking chair and singing to them.

Like so many Moms nowadays I've been told rocking my baby to sleep was bad because it develops bad sleeping habits. Luke's been pretty good at falling asleep on his own at bedtime because of his nightly routine (bath, bottle, cuddles, and then bed). What he's not good at is naps. While my other mommy friends had babies that slept for hours at a time during the day, mine would nap for 20 minutes and wake up. Barely time for a shower or to shovel food down my throat.

Yesterday I watched on Luke's baby monitor as he sat quietly in his crib for half an hour. He stared off into the distance, crawled around, and then started checking out how sturdy the bars on his crib were (probably planning a future escape). After struggling to keep his head up he finally got frustrated and stared into the camera (oh he knows he's being watched) with his 'come get me' look. I finally decided he needed some love and snuggles. After scooping him up I sat quietly in our dark room rocking him back and forth while listening to an instrumental lullaby. He snuggled his little nose up against me and fell asleep instantly.

I thought to myself WHY didn't I do this earlier? I love rocking my baby to sleep. I love singing lullabies to him. I love the bonding, the closeness, and the way he smeyes* at me with half closed eyes before drifting into peaceful sleep.

I use to rock him as a small infant before this whole sleep training started. I thought to myself, "My baby will only be a baby for so long and I am missing out on this!".

Well not anymore! I think from now on (at least for naps) I'll take every opportunity I can to do what I've always wanted to do when I had my own baby.

Rock and sing him to sleep.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky!

*Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!*

When the blazing sun is gone,
When he nothing shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.

Then the traveler in the dark,
Thanks you for your tiny spark,
He could not see which way to go,
If you did not twinkle so.

In the dark blue sky you keep,
And often through my curtains peep,
For you never shut your eye,
Till the sun is in the sky.

As your bright and tiny spark,
Lights the traveler in the dark,—
Though I know not what you are,
Twinkle, twinkle, little star.

-wikipedia

*smeyes is smiling with your eyes

** So this post is probably plagued with tons of errors but I have a 9 1/2 month old crawling into everything so I'll just leave it the way it is. Making sure Luke doesn't chew on the iPhone cable is a bit high on the priority list at this time ;). k k!