Cuddle Bunny

By: Brandy Black

When I was pregnant, I enlisted advice from a few close friends who had children with amazing sleep habits. They all told me to follow a sleep schedule, so we did. As a result I have been a scheduled mommy –to a fault. I followed “Baby Whisperer” from the very start and only allowed a cheat here and there. It was tough, but we knew that in the long run, we wanted an independent sleeper. The Baby Whisper is actually a pretty gentle approach, but it doesn’t allow for yummy cuddle time for naps, etc. We have been deprived.

In the last 6 months we’ve been craving cuddle time, after all, rules are made to be broken! Our well-trained daughter won’t have it; she refuses to take naps on the couch with us or even sleep in our arms on a plane. On one hand, it’s great –she goes down every night at 7PM (for anyone) with no complaints. She is a great sleeper and, I believe, loves her crib time. On the other hand, we never get to cuddle with her! Susan gets bitter with me every once in a while and swears if we have another one, we’ll cheat more.

Today, I called in sick because we didn’t have a nanny for the day. Susan had a lunch break for a couple hours and the three of us hung out on the “Big Girl Bed”, reading books like we do. All of a sudden, Sophia draped one arm around me and the other on Susan and bam went to sleep. I lay frozen; I didn’t want to move a muscle for fear that I would ruin the first cuddle with her moms. My feet were cold, I had work to do, and I wasn’t tired, but I lay soaking in the joy of my little one’s small chest rising and falling on mine as I drifted off to sleep.