Rock a Bye Baby

It used to take me well over an hour to put the boys to bed each night.  Around thirty minutes to nurse Jackson and then about fifteen minutes for bedtime stories with Ben.  And then I would lay in his bed with him until he fell asleep.  It wasn't until right before Jackson was born that Ben finally started to sleep in his bed all night long without waking up once.  So this was an improvement.  After a few months Jackson was taking a bottle and I started him on the nasty little habit of falling asleep with his bottle (once he could hold it).  In my defense he does not like to cuddle, and so once he could hold it himself he would rather just lay down by himself and fall asleep than have me hold and rock him.
Fast forward to four days ago.  It was his nap time and I realized I was all out of whole milk.  So I thought I would just put him down and crossed my fingers he would fall asleep.  He has always really needed his bottle to fall asleep, so I didn't have much hope.  But he fell right asleep.  I decided to take this as my lead and break the bottle in bed habit.  As an easy transition I decided to go back to our old routine of rocking him in the chair with his bottle.  That way he still had his bottle right before bed and then I'd put him down while still awake.  It has worked like a charm and I have been loving the snuggle time.  Reminds me of those first few months with him.  The first night of this new routine, I must have been feeling extra sentimental because I also chose to lay with Ben until he drifted off to sleep.  He hasn't needed me to do this for quite some time now.  It's funny how you always come back to a place of missing things when it comes to your children.  Even those things that weren't very appealing at the time.  Reminded me to always appreciate the moment with my children.  Because things are always going to change.  Nothing stays the same forever.  Even though Jackson has always been an amazing sleeper; those first few months when he did wake me up once to twice a night to eat, I handled it much better than with Ben.  That was my biggest fear before Ben was born- lack of sleep.  And I recall having some pretty miserable days and nights just thinking about somebody, anybody taking him for me for just one night so I could sleep.  This time around, I just kept thinking to myself how this time was going to fly by, and I could handle anything for a season.