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August Birchbox

davidhold

photo credit: Jordan Maunder

The other night David was fighting nighttime sleep and my patience was wearing thin.

Earlier that day he took a 2.5 hour afternoon nap. I thought that there was a chance I’d pay for it later, and I usually stick to a schedule, but the boy has been teething and growth-spurin so I let him go ahead and sleep.

As it turns out it took an extra hour for him to fall asleep that night. Between flipping over to his back and throwing parties, to whining and whimpering mixed with yip’s and cheer’s, I let him get all his energy out and watched the monitor to see if he would fall asleep.

At one point he got pretty upset, so I climbed the stairs to his nursery. It was storming outside as well, so the lightning and thunder, along with being amped from partying in the crib, meant he needed a little assistance to calm down.

I flipped on the hall light, walked into his nursery, and picked him up. I walked about the room with him, in the dark, whispering into his ear ,”it’s time for bed. . . .it’s time to go to sleep now. . .” over and over. Every time the lightning would flash, I’d get a little glimpse of his profile.

I don’t know if he was scared of the storm, or simply happy to be picked up, but I could tell he was immediately comforted being in my arms. If it were up to him, I’d hold him forever.

He finally yawned a few times, and as I laid him down in the crib, he closed his eyes and started sucking his thumb right away.

I patted his back, and walked out of the nursery.

I struggle with being flexible. I like to know exactly how my day will go, exactly when and for how long David will nap, and exactly when Justin will arrive home from work.

As if I haven’t already learned enough that flexibility is the cornerstone of motherhood, I think it’ll take about 24 hours after the new one is here in February before I realize that the only way I’ll survive is to be flexible.

So I’m trying to lighten up a little bit. I still believe in the schedule, but a little bit of grace and flexibility is okay too.

And going into the nursery late at night to help a little boy calm down ended up being exactly when we both needed. I calmed him down, and the simple joy in knowing my son quiets in my arms was what I needed too.