The Hand That Calmed The Cradle

Quiet day today at home after a morning out to check out a Christmas fair. Still feeling full after a giant brunch at the local Smitty’s. Can’t go wrong there.

What I wanted to touch on today was the power of a hand on a fussy baby. Our 3-year old was up in the night and we saw his light on. My wife got up to investigate and that left me with the baby sleeping in his side bed/cradle/bassinet. As soon as she left, there was maybe a second of peace before the baby started fussing and crying.

I lunged over like I jut heard a bomb go off and put my hand into the blind darkness. Once my hand was on the baby, he instantly stopped, breathing calmed and all was well with the world.

Problem was, it was 4am, I was stretched full out and my wife possibly was not coming back for awhile. I had the feeling that I was standing on one of those land minds that once you step on them, you can’t step off.

Do I move the hand and let the baby cry and sabotage any good work my wife is making at putting the 3-year old back to sleep? Or do I lay there, uncomfortable, with my hand on the baby and keep the peace?

Well I chose peace and laid there for a bit, passing out a few times and jarring myself back awake thinking hours had passed. I was pretty tired.

Finally after maybe 15 minutes, I figured it was safe. I let go, crawled back to my side of the bed and went to sleep. There was fussing but luckily, my wife came back and took over like nothing had happened.

Now that is the power of the hand coming through. That is taking care of sleeping business, like a dad.

Comments

No comments yet. Why don’t you start the discussion?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *