We Are the World to Them

This last year has been the year of new babies for my family.  I have four siblings, so five in my family, and four of us have had or are going to have babies this year.  My grandmother is blessed to be a grandma of eight new grandbabies, five of who are in this picture.  {My little guy is on the bottom}

I have been thinking a lot about how important I am as a mother to my sweet baby.  I am everything to him right now.  I am there to feed him, hold him, and care for his every need. (Daddy helps a lot also). We as parents are their world right now.  They can’t depend on anyone else in the world to care for them as much as we do.  It’s not easy all of the time.  In fact sometimes it is totally exhausting, but it is so worth it.

My daughter just turned ten this week and oh how I miss her as a baby.  Don’t get me wrong, she is turning into an incredible little girl, but how I wish I could go back and just rock her and hold her sweet little tiny body in my arms again.  I feel that way with all my kids, it is going by way to fast..

A friend of mine asked a question on Facebook the other day wanting suggestions on how to help her baby sleep without being swaddled because he keeps getting out of the swaddle and waking up, or when she did swaddle him he would cry.  She also said that she didn’t want to have to rock him to sleep so he didn’t get into a bad habit.  Oh I was SO like this with my first, second, third, ok all of them!    This was my response..

I am going through the same thing right now with my 5th.  It’s a 4 month phase!  He is trying to decide if he likes to swaddle or not and breaks free most of the time.  Don’t worry, he will figure it out soon.  Also, don’t think you are going to ruin him by rocking him to sleep.  I remember stressing out so much about this with my babies up through this last one. I now wish that I would have rocked them all a little more.  I rock this baby to sleep almost every time and it is the most peaceful time of my day.  Enjoy it while it last  because they grow up WAY to fast.  Soon he will be 10 and will not want kisses anymore, and will tell you you are being a mean mom when he is mad.  So just snuggle him up and enjoy every second! 

My little guy loves being rocked to sleep, and at first I was so frustrated about it.  None of my other kids had to be rocked to sleep.  I decided to just accept it and enjoy the moments that I get to sit in a rocking chair and hold my baby while he falls asleep.

When my oldest was born I was a scheduling maniac.  I looked at the clock all day long to make sure she wasn’t being fed to often…you know that 3 hour time frame the “should” go between feedings.  I also made sure she learned to go to bed on her own.  I stressed out so much about her sleeping through the night so I let her ‘cry it out’ at four months because people told me she should be sleeping through the night then.  That backfired and I had many nights feeling completely exhausted and crying because she wasn’t sticking to my schedule.

When my 2nd was born we lived with my parents for a little while and I remember asking my mom what time it was all the time.  Finally she just said, “Stop looking at the clock and enjoy your baby”!  So I did, and it helped me loosen up a lot more about scheduling and stressing about how often to feed them, and how long they napped.  My babies ended up getting on a great schedule on their own after I stopped stressing out and just enjoyed my days with them.

As I sat  rocking my four month old to bed tonight I thought about how much I enjoyed this time with him.  How much I will miss it when he just goes to bed on his own.  I know most of you are thinking this is probably horrible advice, but when I look back and think about how much I stressed over having “the perfect child” that had a perfect schedule, I feel sad that I didn’t rock them and enjoy that precious time with them in my arms.  I love looking down into his sweet eyes as he sucks on his paci and looks up at me like I am the whole world to him.  I am the world to him right now… so I am going to enjoy it while it last because time passes way to quickly.