Rocking into the Sunset

[selenite0]

Jamie loves the rocking horse. He'll sit on it and keep rocking until it bumps into the wall (or couch, or whatever) and we have to go over and reposition him to the other side of the living room. Not that he lets this stop him. We realize he needs help from the "scrape, scrape, scrape" of him trying to rock through the wall.

Last night he was still rocking away after Maggie fell asleep (we let them stay up late with the party). He started rocking slower and slower, then got down and came over to me, fussing a little. He was wet, so I took him to the changing table. Zonk. As soon as I laid him down he was out cold.

Tonight he was doing another marathon rocking session. We were joking about him staying up there until he fell asleep and went thump. I joked about installing airbags in the rockers so he'd have something soft to land on. Sure enough, celticdragonfly turned around and saw him rocking slowly, eyes half closed, wavering a bit in the saddle. She picked him up and he was instantly asleep on her shoulder. The boy'd rocked himself to sleep.

Comments

Cowpoke energy burner

[bkseiver.livejournal.com]

Two things: (1) he has burned off the energy he needed to get rid of to sleep; and (2) he has developed a rhythmic pattern that sooths him. Both are part of Jamie taking charge of putting himself to sleep. "It's a good thing", to quote Martha.

[jfsnyder.livejournal.com]

It is a Good Thing for a child to be able to fall asleep by her/himself. It is a trick none of my kids mastered until they were quite a bit older. It would be easier for you and Laura if he could rock himself asleep in a horizontal position though. Giggle.