While You Were Sleeping {The Ordinary Moments}
Although Little Man will sleep on me every so often, when I least expect it, I rarely see LP when she’s asleep now. She’ll read her books before bed, turn her light off and go to sleep. We have never really checked on the children before bed as the baby monitors tell us that they’re fine and as they were never very good sleepers we were scared to wake them.
So it has been months, if not years, since I last saw LP sleeping. I remember her as a tiny baby, falling asleep whilst feeding and sleeping soundly in the crook of my arm. Or she’d fall asleep whilst I was patting her back against my shoulder and I’d rest my cheek against her head.
I remember those days as though they were yesterday. That tiny 6lb 4oz baby, that new baby smell and her little legs still bent and tucked up under her. She was so tiny for so long and even now she is a really dinky thing – but one who thankfully now sleeps through the night.
Recently LP has been forgetting to turn off her light after reading and will fall asleep with it on. I go into her room thinking that she must still be awake and then find her sleeping soundly despite the harsh light shining down on her face.
Instead of reaching over to turn the light off immediately, I instead stand for a moment and watch her sleeping, watch her chest rising and falling and listen to the sleepy sound of her breathing. She looks so small when she’s asleep, so young and so perfect.
I hold onto that moment and appreciate the baby that she was, the lady she will become and the beautiful little girl currently dreaming her dreams. I don’t get to see her sleeping often but when I do I savour it. Our Little Pickle, sleeping soundly next to her own baby doll who she has wrapped up warm for the night. Our LP, so big and yet suddenly so small.
Dream big little one.
A beautiful post. There is nothing more special than a sleeping child is there? X
Oh gorgeous! I always check on my daughter before I go to bed, and I could spend hours just watching her sleep! So precious xx
I have to pull myself away eventually. I love those moments x
Ah this is such a gorgeous post Donna. There is absolutely nothing better than watching them sleeping I don’t think. We go in every night and give Mads and LL a kiss and I will always pause for a moment and watch them- it sounds silly but I think it is when I feel the most love for them if that makes sense. x
I completely understand. At those times our love is at it’s rawest x
Aww, such a lovely post. I often stand outside my daughter’s door before I go to bed but I’m never brave enough to open it and peek inside as she can quite easily wake!
That’s how we were up until recently and I’ve realised LP will now sleep through pretty much anything! x
I tried for a while to stop LP keeping her light on after she went to bed – but her reasoning was she wanted to look through books before she went to sleep. There’s no real reason for me to try and fight that and I hope that she continues to love books as much as she does now x
We are so used to that – especially with Little Man. He decides he must have the most random things from downstairs every single night x
It really is one of my favourite times. I should try and watch them every night but it’s hard when the lights aren’t usually on! x
The doll is one of ELC’s newborn ones and it really does look like a new baby! I should check in on the kids more often but always too scared to wake them, plus our house is pitch black at night! x
What a lovely, emotional post. I check in on Cheeky Chap every night, it’s just something I’ve always done and my mum did, even when I stayed over after leaving home mum would check on me! The overwhelming love that fills you when you watch them sleeping is indescribable, isn’t it?
This is so beautiful, Donna. It still seems so recent that little T was a tiny, scrunched up newborn sleeping on me. Even though he’s a bit bigger now, I love how perfect and innocent he looks when he’s asleep. I’m dreading moving him into his own room and not being able to watch him sleep before I go to bed. Xx
You will still do it! We got a video monitor for T and still watch him sleeping on that often x