27.3.08

I just have to say...

I have loved rocking my babies to sleep. I approach with dread the day that Finn decides he wants to put himself down. There is nothing better than breathing in that sunshine and rainbows smell off that little blond head and snuggling his little body until he slips off. I would never ever trade the few years I've had of rocking my kids to sleep, despite the wakings and re-rockings we've been peppered with, for having a "trained" baby.

I know I've posted this poem before, but it bears repeating:


Song for a Fifth Child

Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth
empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
hang out the washing and butter the bread,
sew on a button and make up a bed.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
(pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).
The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
and out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
but I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
Look! Aren't her eyes the most wonderful hue?
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
for children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

4 rubber neckers:

Anonymous said...

Lovely...and I can only imagine how nice it is...he is such a cuddler!

Ubermilf said...

I hate the whole notion of "training" infants anyways.

I bite my tongue when my newborn niece or nephew are crying for food, and my sisters in law say, "Not until ... (fill in the time)"

Babies go through growth spurts when they need more food. Fuck the charts and time schedules and all that fucking bullshit.

Now that we're mentioning it, I haven't had breakfast yet, which could explain my foul mouth.

LoryKC said...

Love the poem and needed to see that today, thanks! I'm way behind on laundry, dishes, etc. after vacation and was a little thrown when hubbie called to say he was coming home for a few hours at 9am!
"What are you doing?" he asked on the phone.
"Sitting," was my honest answer. I was nursing the baby and he is at the stage where anything and everything is interesting and distracting--so we sit.

I was still "sitting" when the hubbie got home.

kristi said...

my oldest loved to snuggle and let me rock her every night and she always slept with me. my 18 month old will not slow down. she does not like me to rock her. she'd rather be put in her bed and go to sleep. she will not sleep with us. we've tried! it makes me a little sad sometimes. i miss those cuddling years. my 11 year old still climbs in my lap for a snuggle every now and then. it's amazing to me how different children can be.

 

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