Rock-A-Bye

This is Julia when she was around a month old. She was still quite yellowed with jaundice. I love her face here. She still makes that face when she's sleeping even now.

Evan is out watching football with the guys from work, which meant I was in charge of the night time routine. I always get pouty when I have to do the bedtime routine because 1.Julia goes to sleep so much faster for Evan and 2.I enjoy saying my goodnights from the living room and finally getting to take my deep breath because my parenting is done for the day.

But, tonight was pretty easy-peasy. Julia's been going to bed around 7:30 lately, and I'm not about to disrupt that. We shared a fudge-cicle, put on her jammies, brushed her teeth (her absolute favorite part), found her pacifier (which we've been leaving in her room after she wakes up) and then we head to the rocking chair.

Yep. I still rock her. You would not believe how many people are shocked to hear that. Even the lady who I bought my rocking chair from (well, I guess it's a glider) was surprised. She asked if I was having another baby (after seeing my girls in the car) (or maybe judging from my figure) (ugh) and I said, no, that I needed it for my youngest.

"Oh. Well, how old is she?"
"Fourteen months."
"Oh. And you still rock her?"
"Yep."

She needs it. Just like she still needs to hold my hand walking down stairs. Just like she still needs a bib.

With Elisabeth, I know that I was still rocking her at 18 months. I believe I had cut down the whole shake-bounce-beat-her-butt-dance-for-45-minutes that was required to make her sleep and that we'd evolved into a less jarring, more normal rocking-in-a-chair routine. She was around two before she didn't require rocking anymore. Of course, then it was a whole different song and dance to make her sleep (involving an incredible amount of stuffed animals and books in her bed, lots of kisses and hugs, a prayer and a scripted good-bye-at-the-door-speech that I had to say perfectly or we started all over again).

I guess what bothers me when other people (mainly moms, which always kind of baffles me) wonder why we still have to rock Julia to sleep is this--who cares? I mean, really, if rocking is what makes my child feel safe enough to fall asleep without screaming and crying, then who cares?

Now, I'm not saying that she falls asleep perfectly every night and always has. No, siree bob. First off, that girl has only been sleeping through the night consistently for about 4 or 5 months. She would wake up at least once in the night for comfort until she was over a year. And, there are times when she wakes up as soon as we lay her down and then she requires human contact until she falls back asleep. And I've had to walk away for a while because I'm too frustrated to deal with her. But, 99% of the time, just laying in our arms while we rock her to sleep is all she needs. So, we'll keep doing it until she doesn't need it anymore. Then I'll be more than happy to report what sort of weird-o routine she'll need to go to sleep.

Cause you all know that, if they're our kids, it's bound to be special.