Rocking

When Emilee was a small baby, I used to ALWAYS have to rock her to sleep. Pretty much every bedtime, every nap, all the time!  Ryan would do it too, but I think she liked her mama's rocking the best. :) I used to be so overwhelmed when she was tiny. She was so fussy. She was always gassy. She HAD to be swaddled, have her binky, be rocked to sleep. Sometimes I even hated doing it. Usually in the middle of the night while living with very low energy and very little sleep.

Emilee still likes to be rocked once in a while. Usually her preferred soothing method is a bottle though, instead of her Mommy. But if she's just overly tired, sick, or just feeling snuggly, she'll want to be rocked to sleep. She is getting bigger and older every day. My little girl isn't really a baby anymore in a lot of ways. She walks, she's starting to talk, she can sort of feed herself. She does what she wants. ;-)  When I have to rock her now, I cherish it. I wish I had the energy to cherish it when she was teeny tiny. And a lot of the time I did cherish it and soak it all in, while other times my lack of sleep and chronic tiredness kept me from loving every moment of it. Now I love every moment of it. I rock her for a little while longer even after I know she's asleep. I listen to her breathing turn into a little snore, I rub her tiny back, I smell her freshly shampooed hair, I kiss her forehead multiple times and feel her little fingers. She is still my baby! I love that special time with my sweetie, even if she's just sleeping through it. :)