Pretty much every baby sleep method out there will tell you to “put your baby in their crib drowsy but awake.” The idea is if your baby falls asleep in your arms when she wakes up alone in her crib she won’t know where she is and will have a harder time self-soothing back to sleep. There may be some truth in this, however, I’ve never followed it. For me, there is no greater joy than a sleeping baby on your chest. Especially on the challenging days, when your kids fall asleep on you, it somehow makes everything better.
Nearly six years into motherhood it’s becoming rare that the big girls fall asleep on me but when they do I rock them a little longer. I look at those sleeping faces seeing not only who they are now but who they were at birth. It’s the craziest feeling, to see two faces at once. Last week Elyce fell asleep on me. While I was staring at her these words just flew across my mind. Stream of consciousness? Maybe. All I know is I’ve never gotten up so quickly from that rocking chair. I had to write it down. Reading the words back to myself they felt like a poem. A poem I titled, I Rock You a Little Longer.
Here’s to ignoring the best practices and molding parenting advice to fit your family.
Absolutely! There are NO rules!