A Mama and her chicks...

I love these pictures. The first one because Amelia's face is priceless! The rest because they are just so us. Just us before bedtime. Amelia and I straightening up the bed and Sam and I doing some quality reading while Amelia is having her "spa time" in the kitchen. Every night at around 6:30 in the Hunt house this is what's going on. I am trying to soak it up, these little routines that I so often take for granted. I don't want to forget how we straighten up all of the blankets each night before baths. Each of us has our favorite sleep spot and favorite blanket. Or how Joel usually gives the baths and lets me have a few relaxing moments with the other babe. How we still swaddle them up at bed time and how they like to have a soft blanket or lovie touching their face. How Sam likes his little brow lightly traced by my finger until he gets so sleepy his eyes can't stay open any longer and how Amelia will grab your finger or thumb so tightly while she violently sucks on her binkie until she starts to fade off to sleep. Usually she can fall asleep on her own now without nursing but sometimes she fights it big time and I'll put a soft blanket around her body and then pull her back and forth like she's in a hammock (or sling probably!) until she relaxes enough to fall asleep. And then we look at them in their little corner of our big,big bed and ooh and ahh over them and turn on the fan as we walk out of the bedroom to have our "free time" for the evening. Then around 9:30 we go in and snuggle into bed to see what the night has in store for us:) Last night Amelia woke up around 12:30 and was talking and squealing and laughing for like 30 minutes! Joel was laughing so hard the bed was shaking as we both woke up and were like, "What in the world is she doing?!" Sam slept through the whole thing but finally her talking turned to fussing and I decided the party needed to end so that we could all go back to sleep! She nursed and conked out. Sharing sleep with our babes is not always the easiest way to go. If 8-12 hours of uninterrupted sleep is your goal early on in babyhood, then I wouldn't recommend it for your family. Did you know that babies can smell breast milk up to 50 feet away? Or so a physical therapist told me a couple of weeks ago. Anyway, with mommy being so close to the babes, of course they want to wake up to eat more often than if they were in the other room! But for us, we can't imagine things any other way for now. It's a big part of our family rhythm. We are (gently, patiently) trying to establish some better "sleep associations" etc. that may help Amelia be able to go bck to sleep on her own more during the night, and for that I thank "The No-Cry Sleep Solution" book. It is written by a co-sleeping mama and has been a big encouragement to this mama! Anyway, how did this post become so enormously long? I guess because looking at these pictures makes me want to bottle up all that we are thinking, feeling, experiencing as parents at this stage.....it's an emotional thing, this parenting business! Through the exhaustion, and frustrations, and mama-guilt, etc. thankfulness still reigns and that is something that I hope never changes.