Sweet dreams are made of this….
…how sleep is beneficial, in more ways than you may think!
And….they’re asleep. Sssshhhhh! On tiptoe, I creep from our bedroom, stopping one last time before I sneak out, to cast a glance at my boys’ sleeping faces. Ah, bedtime. My favorite time! That’s not to say I don’t love the daytime with my boys. But I’m also not going to pretend that daytimes are always easy. I can’t be one of those moms who says everything is always perfect because it isn’t. No matter how busy our day has been, no matter how many sibling squabbles have happened, bedtime somehow smoothes it all out, making everything feel easier. It’s an essential re-set.
In these quiet moments, I adore the simple pleasure of watching Gor-Gor and Sai-Lo while they sleep in the cosy, spacious double bed that we co-sleep in. Their safe place. I know most parents will know what I’m talking about here. It starts in those intense, sleep-deprived newborn days that pass by in a whirlwind. Watching your baby sleep is a profound and remarkable experience. They are still. You don’t have to feed them, burp them, or change their diaper. You can just soak them up, every inch of their perfection. You can wonder at each fold of skin, each dimple, each tiny fingernail and each delicate eyelash. I used to think: I literally love every single hair on your head. And that feeling has just grown.
Watching my boys sleep is my all-time favorite thing to do. I think it’s because, for so little of the day, my youngest son Sai-Lo is never still. Out of the two of them, he has the most energy by miles. During the day he is a blur of activity, noise and joyfulness. As a baby, he was practically nocturnal. Even today, he wakes up on average four times a night. He is almost always switched on! This means I am always almost on, too, and makes the time I get to switch off truly restorative and much-needed.
When the boys are sweetly snoring away, I get to escape into some blissful me-time before I re-join them in bed later on. I can read a book, watch a TV show, or just sit down. It’s golden time, and I treasure it. But what I treasure far more is the pleasure of watching Gor-Gor and Sai-Lo as they rest. Those moments where I lie next to them as they drift off to sleep, and when I pause by our bedroom door before I slip away, are moments I want to savor. It’s a time for me to simply enjoy their sheer cuteness and feel my gigantic love for them run through me. It’s having the time to do that, because when they are awake, these kinds of thoughts don’t even get a chance to blossom because we are so busy talking, listening, doing. Every thought process is fleeting before my attention is torn away to something else we need to do. So at bedtime, I always take time to breathe deeply, and to watch them as they slumber. It’s like therapy. I reach out and touch their soft skin, and sometimes kiss them gently as they sleep, before I tiptoe out to my glorious me-time. And as crazy as this may sound, sometimes I can’t wait for them to wake up so we can have another day of fun together….! But then the couch is calling me…who am I to resist?!
Are you a sleep-watcher like me? If you are, I would love to hear all about it!
