Tuesday, September 20, 2005
We all need to sleep sometimes.
12:24 PM
Let me paint a picture for you. 10 minutes ago I was upstairs working on my computer. Emma was sitting on the ground next to me playing with a four foot inflatable hammer. Honestly. 9 minutes ago she started crying. 8 minutes ago it turned into screaming. 7 minutes ago, yeah I know I am a bad dad and I took longer than I should have, I got off the computer and and carried her downstairs. 6 minutes ago I set her down and started making a bottle. 5 minutes ago I laid down with her on the bed and started feeding her. 4 minutes ago she started rubbing her eyes. 3 minutes ago she was finished with the bottle and rolled toward me. 2 minutes ago when she rolled toward me our eyes met. Hers widened for an instant of recognition and she gave me the slightest hint of a smile. 1 minute ago she closed her eyes all the way and fell completely asleep. I fell completely in love...again.
I was thinking to myself that it is pretty cool to be able to actually see her fall asleep. I usually get her to the very edge of sleep and then sneak out so I don't accidentally rouse her. More often than not my mere presence will awaken her. It's times like this when I envy my wife and the opportunity she has at 3AM to go upstairs and put Emma to bed. I have been trying to help out and Emma is getting better about sleeping for me. At 3AM neither one of us wants to be the "lucky one" but once she is in our arms we realize that we are lucky and the sleeper downstairs is missing out. It is so worth trading 10 minutes of sleep for what seems like a priceless eternity of a beautiful sleeping babe in your arms.
Another observation I take away from this experience is that I knew exactly what she needed. Regardless of what she wanted. She was asleep in only a couple of minutes. It made me think about all the times my parents put me down for a nap and I fought with them. Then it made me wonder about all the times growing up when they said "no" or made me do things their way. Maybe they weren't so mean and dumb after all. Too bad it took me two decades and lot of dirty diapers to realize it.
I was thinking to myself that it is pretty cool to be able to actually see her fall asleep. I usually get her to the very edge of sleep and then sneak out so I don't accidentally rouse her. More often than not my mere presence will awaken her. It's times like this when I envy my wife and the opportunity she has at 3AM to go upstairs and put Emma to bed. I have been trying to help out and Emma is getting better about sleeping for me. At 3AM neither one of us wants to be the "lucky one" but once she is in our arms we realize that we are lucky and the sleeper downstairs is missing out. It is so worth trading 10 minutes of sleep for what seems like a priceless eternity of a beautiful sleeping babe in your arms.
Another observation I take away from this experience is that I knew exactly what she needed. Regardless of what she wanted. She was asleep in only a couple of minutes. It made me think about all the times my parents put me down for a nap and I fought with them. Then it made me wonder about all the times growing up when they said "no" or made me do things their way. Maybe they weren't so mean and dumb after all. Too bad it took me two decades and lot of dirty diapers to realize it.
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2 comments:
Garrett I'm so glad that you and emma where able to share that special moment this morning. I hate waking up at 3am until she cuddles up to me and is sound asleep in seconds. I have to go and try to put her to sleep know. I love you
well for some reason I can't get the comments in my safari browser and I finally got tired of seeing all the comments and not able to read them. we're really enjoying your blog postings. This one was great!
Gabe
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