Love Letter #5: You’re Awake!

Dear Button,

You turned 5-months on Wednesday!  We put you to bed early – by 8.  After fussing for a bit, you were out and then you know what I did?  I watched HGTV and willfully neglected writing you your letter.  If my brain had been hooked up to an EKG (I know, dad, that’s for a heart.  Work with me here), the line would have been flat.  I felt that brain dead.  I worried the Universe would throw bad babiness in my face when I said things were easy last month.  And rightly so, because this month has been exhausting.  For all of my “I am so not an attachment parenter,” I realized that I am the Valedictorian of Attachment Parenting.  Co-sleeping, check.  Feeding on demand, check.  Wearing my baby around all the time, check.  Holding you through naps, check.

 

Nothing makes you a hypocrite faster than becoming a parent.  As wonderful as it is to have this wonderful little person, well, attached to you, it is completely exhausting.  So, this past week we’ve been working on a nap schedule and putting you to bed much earlier than your preferred 10:30pm.  When I say nap and bed I mean your crib, not my bed.

At first, I kidded that Patch couldn’t be happier to have the bed back for just the three of us – Me, your dad and him.  You know, the first pack.  But then I realized, who am I kidding?  Patch would love it if all four of us slept all cuddled up together forever and ever, amen.  In fact, when I laid you down on the guest bed to read you some bedtime stories that night, Patch jumped up and plopped himself down next to you.  He licked the top of your head, and then set his head down on his paws stretched out in front of him to listen to “Guess How Much I Love You.”  That Big Nutbrown Hare gets him every time.

Despite all this sleep stuff, the theme of this this past month has been “Awake.”  It’s like you’ve been a pinwheel that all of a sudden found a gust of wind.  It’s only when spinning that the colors come alive.  Just the other day, I had tucked you into the Ergo for a walk before heading to the kitchen for one last glass of water.  While gulping down the water, I had the distinct feeling that someone was staring at me.  I looked down to see two blue eyes making full-on contact with mine.  Well, hello!

Now that you can really see the world, you are going places! “Hey, look where Avery is at,” your dad laughed as we I looked up from my laptop. You were a good foot and a half off of your play mat and on your stomach. Pushing up? No problem. That toy dangling a few inches away? You are already trying to push yourself towards it. Watch out world, you are on your way!

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