my daughter, noa magnolia, slept in this beautiful cradle for 9.5 months. yes people, i said it. nine. point. five. MONTHS. i am well aware that cradles are meant to be for infants to sleep in until they are 5-6 months, at the most. however, noa never really slept. once she began to actually hit rem, and keep those little peepers closed for 3-4 hour increments, i let superstition get the best of me.don't judge me, i mean, if you didn't sleep more than 2 hours at a time for six months, i think you just may do the same. after three consecutive nights of 4 straight hours of sleep, i vowed to do the exact same routine every night, which included spinning around three times, blinking twice, and engaging in serious prayer while standing on my head.
(kidding...sort of.)
at any rate. noa had her first love affair with this cradle. can you blame her? it was big and bold and fancy and fit for royalty. well sort of. ok, not royalty, but maybe a B-list celebrity baby? and by the point of her actually sleeping in it, it had become suited to meet her every wish. such preferences included replacing the nice custom mattress with an old, torn, changing table pad, that had a down blanket snugged under a cozy fleece cover, all wedged inside the cradle frame. i know, it is so weird. but, so is baby noa, when it comes to sleeping. i guess she just loved the way it dipped in a little and snuggled her little body. she actually slept/rested in said pad since she was 8 days old. again, don't judge. she swore it was ahhh-mazing.
and, as long as she was happy (and sleeping) so was i. we used the buh-jeezus out of that bad boy. that is, until the one morning i woke up to see this...
a crazy baby sitting strait up, then trying to pull to a stand, over the edge of that teensy bed.
i told little noa, it was time for a change. her teeny tiny bed just wasn't safe anymore.
this was her reaction...
(this is also one of my all time favorite photos of noa. ha ha.)
so, we test drove that expensive, hand painted crib, i daydreamed about her sleeping in for months before she was born. the crib her nursery was decorated around. the crib that lives in her room (not mine). and nope. nope. nope. nope. baby boss was NOT having that. she was polite about it, at first. but, when she felt i didn't get her kind no-thank you
(p.s. i got it. i just didn't want it.)
she gave me a fierce one-two punch, and made sure this momma got the memo.
no. crib. mom.
out of sheer terror that i'd never sleep more than 2-3 hours again, i gave in. we went shopping. and we came home with a cozy pack and play. it still has a quilted base, with a down comforter and cozy fleece fitted sheet. and yes. it still lives in momma's room.
but most importantly, baby noa actually sleeps in it.
like full nights of sleep.
amen. and hallelujah.
note: i pray that she decides to transition out of this bed before the age of 10.
:-)
