Last night I volunteered to stay in the room with Little Man. He and Mommy have both been under the weather for a few days, and Dad needed to get some sleep before going to work. I have to admit, because very few things are more satisfying to me than having a baby relax to sleep in my arms, I was looking forward to our little sleep-over--watching baby sleep peacefully and swinging him in the
rede if he needed some help sleeping with his stuffy nose and cough. I learned a lot about how this 11 month-old spends his nights!
First of all, congested breathing and coughing with a pacifier is, as you may know, a tricky issue. I learned very early on that Little Man has a strong preference for re-inserting said passy all by himself. Don't try to put it back in his mouth, thank you. Just place it in his hand and he'll do the rest.
Next, there's the 'sleeping peacefully' thing. From 11pm to 7am D must have sleep-travelled
at least 2 miles around in his crib. Do you remember those Family Circus cartoons that illustrate where little Billy goes in a day's time? You know, the ones with the criss-crossing arrows that travel across the page like a little ant that's lost its scent rail. Yeah, that's our guy.
When he wasn't sleep-crawling or rooting around in the safe confines of his crib, he and I would snuggle in the orange woven Brasilian hammock--
rede--that's in the room. BTW--If you have a baby in the house,
get a rede for the nursery; compared to a rocker, it's much more comfortable to swing with a little one on your chest where you can relax too. Well, that's assuming the baby relaxes, right? My companion for the night wanted desperately to sleep. In order to run away from his congested head, he would drape his shoulders and the back of his neck over my arm and hang his head upside-down off the side. Must have felt good for him because he settled like that for quite some time. Much longer than it took my right arm to disengage from my body.
All sarcasm aside, I learned a lot about D's sleep habits and even more. I loved listening in on his little sleep songs and purring snores. When we were in the
rede I could feel his perfect tiny heart beating. What an amazing miracle. Only God could create the impeccably tuned mechanisms that make for human life. What could have been a long dark night became a time of worship. I started a mental list of the names of God A to Z--the ways that He's shown Himself to me.
Abba, All-in-All, the Alpha and Omega
Beautiful, Bread of Life, Blessed
Creator, Christ, Comforter, Counselor, Consolation
Door, Devouring Fire
Eternal God, Encourager, ENOUGH
Everlasting Father, Faithful, Friend, Forgiver, Freedom
Gardener, Gatherer, God
Holy Spirit, Helper, Husband, Healer
Infinite, Indescribable, I AM
Jehovah, Judge, Jesus
King of Kings
Lord of Life, Light of the World, Lover of My Soul,
Lifter of My Head
Messiah, Morning Star, Mercy, Miracle Worker
Name Above All Names
Omnipotent, Omnipresent, the One True God
Provider, Protector, Peace
Rest, Refuge, Redeemer, Restorer, Refiner, Rock
Savior, Shepherd, Source of Life
TRUTH, Teacher
Very God, Vine, Victor
Wisdom, Wonderful, Word, the Way
eXcellent
Yahweh
What a sleep-over! I rarely have time to think on deep things, but God carved out a time for just that. Thank You, God, for all that You are. And thank You for time to consider this.
