I don't like to throw out the "Consider Yourself Lucky" comments too often, but one instance in which I get those aimed in my direction is in regards to Jack's sleeping arrangements. You see, Jack has never slept anywhere other than his crib. So often, people will tell me how lucky I am because their kids are always wanting - begging - to sleep in their bed with them. They recount their situation as drudgery at times, a foiled effort towards getting just a smidgen of privacy in their own bedroom.
I get that. Really I do. It's the opposite of the extreme we experience, and no one likes extremes.
Here's the thing about that - and you may have to trust me on this one - you would miss having that warm little lovey of yours cuddled next to you if he or she never did. That's how I feel. I feel a twinge of jealousy when people tell me that their kids sleep in their bed. I long to be able to cuddle my sweet boy and see his baby cheeks laying softly on my pillow. When he's sick, I wish that he would sleep in our room so that I did not have to endure a sleepless night of worry and checking in on him. When we have inclement weather and tornadoes - as we are wont to have here in the South - I wish I could keep him close-by.
It also made me hopeful that I could one day get to snuggle my sleeping babe.
Well, that day came, if only momentarily.
Jack had gone for his EKG earlier in the day and - as has been his usual for the past year or so - he started running a fever later in the day that hit fast and furious. His nose was pouring and he was letting out cough after cough. By bath time, his cheeks were already red and raw from having to wipe his nose. He was sleepy, it had been a long day, and he was not feeling well. He was spent.
That combined with the melatonin made him nod off while I was reading his usual bed time story, the one we still read even 5 months after the holidays - Twas The Night Before Christmas. Since we put his Big Boy Bed in his room, I have been reading his bed time story to him on the bed, so when he nodded off last night I laid him down beside me. While I did not want to leave him on the bed (a night when he felt sick didn't seem like a good time for his first full night in his Big Boy Bed), I did get - for a few moments - that opportunity for which I have waited 4 long years. I got a few moments to snuggle and cuddle my sweet boy.
No words. The picture says it all. It was bliss. For the briefest of moments, we were like any other mother and son. I was cuddling him before bed, while he lay at my side.
That brief cuddle was worth the wait, sweet boy. It was so worth the wait.