No more rocking

And just like that, my baby boy no longer wants me to rock him to sleep.

We used to have this system; swaddle the baby, pick up the baby, put the pacifier in, and rock the baby to sleep. Boom. Worked like a charm. But a few days ago, mid sequence, Everett started arching his back like crazy. "Put me down!" he seemed to say. And so I did. Into the crib he went. And after a few minutes he was sound asleep. What the?! Babies do this? On their own? Babies just decide when they don't need you to rock them to sleep anymore? This is bananas.

All the books I read said things like "don't rock your baby to sleep / let your baby nurse to sleep / hold your baby until he is sound asleep because he will want to do it forever!" So I of course thought it was up to me. But no friends. No. I'm sure every baby is different. But this baby? This baby just weaned himself from rocking. And I'm not gonna lie, it makes my heart sink a little.

I remember I used to dream of this day. "One day he won't need me to go to sleep!" I thought. And it was such a liberating thought. But now that it's here, it's like "Wait...wait...you sure you don't want me to rock you to sleep? It's really nice...?" But he's sure. I've been trying it intermittently just to be sure sure he knows what he's doing, with no success.

So there we go. "Snuggle that baby while you can!" all the mamas told me. And I did. But it still feels too short. And I know he's only 5 months old. And I know I still have months of nursing and having him keen to hang out on my lap and want to be carried around by me. But it just made me realize. One at a time all of those things are going to disappear. Poof. So, lesson learned. I will snuggle that baby all I can while I can.

Next adventure? Getting rid of that swaddle. Wish me luck.