Skip to main content

Best Bedtime Ever

Tonight I was a good mom. It doesn't happen all the time so it's very refreshing when it does.

Soren was really tired and cranky when we were trying to wind down and get ready for bed. Every time we got near his crib his whining would change into piercing shrieks, with legitimate tears running down his cheeks. And although I knew he was probably really thirsty, he was throwing his cup of milk all over the room.

So I turned off the lights and sat down in his rocking chair with him. He pointed with a squawk at the bookshelf, hoping for a story. But I knew that one book would blossom into a million and wouldn't help him calm down at all; my son is a greedy, voracious bookworm and one story just wets his appetite for a dozen more.

Instead of getting a book, I cradled him in my arms and sang songs. I sang "Waltzing Matilda", "I Know My Father Lives", "I Lived in Heaven", and "Still Alive". Surprisingly, he didn't resist the cuddle and after a couple of songs, stuck his thumb in his mouth.

Since he was much more calm, I tried giving him the milk again, which he chugged in minutes while I sang another lullaby. By the time he was finished with the milk, his eyes were dropping and his body was quite still.

I stood up and carried him to the crib. He reached out for it and that's how I knew he was ready for bed. When I put him down on the mattress, he put his thumb in his mouth and squirmed around a bit (like a dog trying to get comfortable). I covered him with his blanket and that was that.

Bedtimes like that make me feel really competent as a mother. I know how to soothe my child and how to help him feel comfortable and safe. Sometimes we really do have a no-cry solution.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What Works for Us: Room Time

I've decided to do a new series of posts on how I make parenting work for us. Every parent does it differently--which is great!--but I have a hard time keeping my discoveries to myself. The things I do may not work for anyone else but I want to record them and remember them. Hopefully, it will also help me vent my soap-box-y-ness so that I'm not always imposing my ideas on other people. That will be what "What-Works-for-Us Posts" are about. One of the things that we have always done, but has made a HUGE difference in the move from one to two children, is Room Time . When Soren was 6 months old, I started having him play alone (in a safe place) every day for a few minutes. At first it was only five minutes in the port-a-crib but we quickly worked up to fifteen, then thirty. At that time, I used those precious minutes to do housework or relax on the couch. When I was pregnant with Carl, Soren would play alone for about an hour in his room and I would usually tak...

Just Enough is More

They say that later-born children have skinny photo albums.  While parents lavish attention on the firstborn (making certain to record every milestone and in both print and pixels), later children are forgotten and neglected.  So the common wisdom goes. Maybe its true.  There are certainly fewer posts on this blog about the younger boys than there were about the older ones.  And there's no doubt about it: fewer photos are taken now-a-days.  I don't even want to talk about videos.  Poor neglected Leif.  According to the records, he's hardly even a presence in this house. Except that's not true. The paucity of posts and pictures does not reflect an absence of affection.  It does not speak to my feelings about living with children at all.  I find them no less delightful and amazing than I did eight years ago when I first began my mothering journey.  If anything, the little ones delight me even more now.  I know better how to enjo...

Surrounded by Love

One of my greatest worries about having four children was that I would not be able to welcome and love my new baby as well as I had the others.  Now that he is here, I feel that he is perhaps the most welcomed and best loved of all my sons.  More on that in a moment. I struggled to bond with Leif in utero, in part because pregnancy was old hat to me and in part because life was busy with too many other things.  The new miracle  growing inside of me was the most normal thing about my life.  There were a few good moments that helped me prepare mentally: doing guided meditations during Christmas vacation, my blessingway on January 6th, and a really good conversation I had with Scott about my hopes and worries.  But mostly, my mind was elsewhere. And then there was the birth.  I should have known that it would be a totally unique experience and that it would prepare me for this totally unique child. Needless to say, I'm crazy about the little guy. ...