Life of the Rainers

Rock a bye baby

When Canon was born I loved rocking or nursing Canon to sleep at bedtime. It was such a sweet sweet time with him. Canon had a hard time settling down for bed. He also had horrible reflux, so we were told to keep him upright for 30 minutes before laying him in bed for the night. It took a long time to get Canon to sleep. Long nurser + reflux + a hard time settling = long bed time! It seemed like all my friends had kids that you could just lay down in their crib and they would fall fast asleep in a heart beat. I started to think maybe I was doing something wrong with Canon. Why wouldn't he fall fast asleep when putting him in the crib instead of crying. Some nights I just wanted to be able to lay him down and walk away. I wanted the easy route. So I started having conflicting thoughts about how we should put Canon to sleep. We tried the cry it out method, we started a bedtime routine, we patted the back, ect. I agonized on how to get Canon to be a better sleeper. I read books, blogs, went to various websites, but all I really wanted to do was just rock him to sleep if he needed it. That is what felt right and natural.

But was I going to create a bad habit? Was I doing Canon a disservice?

Fast forward to now.

We still rock Canon to sleep. Not every night, but every night that he needs to be rocked to sleep. Most nights he will go down on his own after cuddling and singing with mom or dad in the rocking chair for 5 to 10 minutes. Almost always he goes down on his own for naps unless he needs to be rocked to sleep. We have not corrupted him. He sleeps for 12 hours almost every night. Even if he didn't sleep 12 hours I don't believe it would be because we rocked him to sleep often.

I LOVE the way we have gone about putting Canon to sleep. I wouldn't have it any other way. I have come to appreciate how Canon needs lots of down time before going to sleep. He needs lots of TLC and I am more than willing and happy to give that to him. Yes, it takes longer some nights and days, but I don't ever want to look back and wish I would have rocked and cuddled with him more. We have the most precious moments with him while rocking, whether he falls asleep or not on us. Canon has been rocked every night and day of his life, maybe not to sleep, but at least held and loved on before every nap or bed time.

I wish I wouldn't have agonized over if I was doing the right thing or not. I wish I would have been confident enough to go with my instincts and do what I was comfortable with instead of what other people told me was "right".

Jess and I are thankful for the time we get to cuddle with Canon, we know the day will come when he doesn't want to be cuddled before bed time. We are thankful we got to hold and rock Will for that short hour he was with us. I am so beyond thankful Will was in our arms when he went to go be in the arms of Jesus.

The Lord is good.

Rachel