4:45 a.m. is not a time many of us see. In fact, it’s a time that many of us try really hard not to see!
We have two alarm clocks in our bedroom. Alarm clock 1 goes off at 5:15. Alarm clock 2 goes off at 6:00. Guess who gets to sleep in every day? If you said me, try again! Then there’s the alarm clock on my phone. It goes off at 1:45 am every day. Yes, I love that my baby sleeps through the night. No, I don’t love that I have to get up and pump during the wee hours. Yes, multiple days a week I turn off my alarm and don’t know it. The good thing about that “mistake” is that my body is slowly adjusting to a full night of sleep. And those couple of days where I get a good 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep really make a difference. That’s not where I was going…that could be a whole other post.
Focus. Last night I pulled myself from the trenches of a warm slumber and made my 1:45 date. Ok, if I’m being honest I actually got up at 2:15. Back to story… At 4:45 a new alarm clock sounded. It came from Bryan’s side of the bed. It came from the monitor that sits on his night stand. (Why do we call them night stands? Really it’s an end table next to his side of the bed.) When you become a mom, you wake at the first sound your baby makes. You adjust to their noisy sleep patterns and block those sounds out. And I have a noisy sleeper! He makes little noises all night long. Anytime I’m awake I can hear those sounds. He moves his head from side-to-side. And sometimes you even hear him get rid of some gas. Anyway, you wake when he wakes. This morning I woke up to the most amazing sound. (Well, I’m sure I’ll say that again when he starts talking through the monitor. Oh…that’s exciting to think about!!)
Little 16-week old Maximus was squealing with delight!! Delight like those exclamation points! Mind you, he’s basically in the dark. He has a night-light but it doesn’t give off much light. And he doesn’t have a mobile above his crib. The only thing in his crib are the blankets that he’s swaddled in. My happy little baby was apparently so delighted with life, that he squealed out multiple times. My husband opened his eyes and looked at me. “What is that?” he said. I responded, “He’s having a party in there!” A party to which we weren’t invited. His squeals never turned to distress and left just as quickly as they came. We listened to him move around a bit as I wondered if he was unswaddling himself. Next came the familiar sounds of our little man sucking on his thumb. It’s a very distinct sound because he’s sucking with all his might so that thumb doesn’t escape! Over the last week he’s gotten very good at deliberately sticking it in his mouth. But he still settles for a couple of fingers or the top of his hand when he can’t get them to cooperate. When I went in to wake him at 6:30, he was free-stylin’ in his crib with no blankets on him and arms spread above his head. He leads a very good life, you can tell by the way he snoozes. No cares in the world!
Back to topic. He’s been really working on his voice the last few weeks. He likes to make noises and “talk” to people. He’s made a couple squeals but nothing has been as loud and excited as the ones this morning. I wonder if he was having little baby dreams about laughing. He needed to wake up and practice when he thought no one was listening. Little does he know, I’m always listening. And in the middle of the night, I creep into his room and watch him sleep. It’s what mothers’ do. Nothing compares to the angelic face of a baby sleeping. I love my baby when he’s awake. Watching him sleeps makes me turn into mush and wish he was awake to smile at me! Do not worry, I’m not crazy enough to touch him in the middle of the night!
My little babe is learning new things every day and sometimes it requires practice during the night. There’s a lot of moving and growing going on inside that little body. I’m excited beyond belief to be the one to watch firsthand and help develop him into the person he’s going to be. If his first four months are any indication, I’d put money down that he’s going to be a laid back, happy little dude. And if the smiles are any indication, he’s going to be a people-person. And we won’t talk about how that thumb that he’s sucking on belongs to his right hand. Maybe he doesn’t want to harm his hitting hand…
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