My baby is now five months old. At her four month check up, her doctor said it would be OK and time to let her "cry it out". You know "cry it out"? It's when you feed your baby and put her down to sleep for the night, but she doesn't go to sleep and cries until you come in...but only you can't do that. You're supposed to let her cry to console herself back to sleep...You know about that? Yeah...well, I don't do that.
It's bedtime. Her door is shut. My ear is to the door, "oh, what's that? Is that the sound of a soft whimper?" The door flies open. "Oh, Baby Girl, it's OK, Mommy's here now to hold you!"
OK, yeah, so sue me! I open the door sooner than I should. I pick up my baby and hold her when I should just be patting her back. I rock her to sleep when I should be letting her soothe herself....bad mommy, bad mommy!
So here's the thing, I have an addiction...and it's little fingers, little toes, a fuzzy head and soft cheeks. The thought of those soft cheeks getting wet and tear stained is just too much for me to handle. I could hold that teeny hand in mine, stroke that fuzzy head and rock that little bundle all night.
One of the biggest joys of parenting is watching your child grow, become his/her own person and seeing the world through her eyes. And while I cannot get enough of the one liners from my toddler...I love, love, love the babies. The baby stage is here and gone before you blink. So this time around I'm cheating the books a little bit and sneaking in those extra visits at night and extra rounds in the rocking chair...and that's that.
I can't wait for bedtime tonight, and after my baby girl has fallen asleep, I will sneak into her room, lean over her crib and by the shine of the moon and stars rotating on her ceiling, I will watch her tummy rise and fall and steal a couple extra kisses on her sweet little piggies. Sweet dreams, Cheekers!
I tried cry it out too and I'm no good at it. I decided that if I had any regrets in life it would not be that I held my daughter too much. Especially after I dreamed of holding her for so long! Also I can get her back to sleep in half the time it takes her to cry it out. I appreciate hearing about those who feel the same way when it seems like a lot of people say it's the best thing they ever did. Since she is my first I hope I don't regret it but for now I'll spend some extra time in my glider!
I'm still really enjoying the blog Melissa. I'm always amazed at how you come up with good stuff every day.
Posted by: Jenny Weisser | July 07, 2008 at 10:10 PM