Thursday, May 6, 2010

Nap with Mommy

I just rocked Natalie to sleep in my arms and cradled her for over half an hour. Natalie sleeps on me all the time after nursing, but as Mike once pointed out, it really isn't the same as when she is asleep directly on me. She slept restlessly last night, crying out several times, and then seemed to wake up around 520, so it isn't that surprising that she was ready for a nap early, especially when you add in that it is dark and rainy here today. So, I gave her a little snuggle and put her in the crib. But twice she flipped over on her tummy and just wasn't settling. If I'd left her longer, maybe she would have gone to sleep, but I was second guessing her need for a nap, so I picked her up. After a little of "the mommy sway," she put her head down on my chest and that was that. It was so sweet that I decided I'd just hold her. After a couple minutes of swaying, she was still sucking her thumb, but pretty much asleep, so I sat down in the rocking chair. We had to do some adjusting because she kept sliding down and my arm got sore from supporting her (she does weigh about 18 pounds after all), but she slept for almost half an hour. It was so very nice to just snuggle with her for a while. I like how I can rest my nose on the top of her head and smell her hair, and look down at her peaceful face. At least once she lifted her head up with her eyes close and made her goofy little tired smile. And she woke up in such a better mood. It won't be long before we won't do this sort of thing at all anymore, so it was nice to give her a warm, snugly nap on Mommy. She seemed so huge! It has been months probably since I've had the need to do this. The last nap on my chest I can remember was in mid-January. It made me a little amazed and sad to see how big she is compared to before. She is growing up so fast! And with how big she seemed, it didn't seem like a snugly nap would even be physically possible for much longer. But then I remembered how at story time this one girl climbed up on to her mother's lap to give her a hug. This girl was probably like 4 and pretty tall. It was so cute how she was so big on her mom's lap, but from watching her you could tell she climbs up there all the time. So, if that little girl is still snuggling, so will we.

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