We moved Boy Child into his bedroom tonight. I didn't want to, but a few of the slats of his cradle loosened up, and even though Husband immediately repaired them it'll take a few days for the wood glue to set. Since Boy Child is three months old, I reluctantly agreed that we should move him into his bedroom now, before he really gets into the routine of sleeping in the bedroom with us. He's sleeping through the night now – going to bed between midnight and 1:00am and waking around 9:00am to eat, so I can't even use the excuse of, “but it's so much easier to nurse throughout the night when he's in here with us!†So I made up his crib, putting on a sheet I used in his cradle, making sure the mattress wasn't raised too high, as he is beginning to roll over. I took all of the stuffed animals that were strewn about the crib and tucked them into the corner opposite from his head. I made sure to put in the blanket from the cradle so he would recognize his scents on them.
I know my baby boy is only moving from being next to our bed to next to our bedroom, and that makes it sound like it isn't much. But in terms of feet, he's going from being five feet away to about fifteen feet away, with a wall in between.
And to think, I always secretly mocked the mothers who cried about moving their baby from their bedroom into another. And here I am, feeling tears prick my own eyes as I look over at Boy Child's disassembled crib, knowing that he will no longer sleep in it.
Motherhood is hard. You're prepared for – or at least aware of – the sleepless nights, fits of crying (we are truly blessed as neither of our children cried except to express hunger or the need for a diaper change), diaper rash, sore nipples, teething, etc. But no mother is truly prepared for what I think is one of the harder things – the need to let go. You watch as your baby morphs from a tiny, helpless newborn cradled snugly in your arms to a squirming infant who's wanting to look and listen. The infant grows into a a cooing, babbling, sitting up and crawling baby. Then come the first steps. At that point you don't really have the time to recollect on the other ways you're letting go, as you're too busy racing after your walking baby.
And on a semi-related note, Picture People got things a little mixed up. I received a card for a free 10 x 13 portrait for Boy Child for months 4-6… before I received the card for a free 10 x 13 for months 0-3 (it came today).
Well, my notebook's battery is winding down and my eyelids are getting heavy. I think I'm going to call it a night.
