Sleep poke

We’ve been traveling a bit lately. As I mentioned earlier this week, last week was my brother-in-law’s wedding, which was wonderful. Other than, y’know, spending over eight hours in airports and airplanes with an almost-eighteen-month-old who just wants to walk around, for goodness’ sake! Actually, Hayden was quite good at traveling, despite not having a nap all day that day. (He dozed off in the car on the way to the hotel, and Hayden is not a car-sleeping kid.)

Now, we’ve also made a nine hour car trip out to visit my parents for a while (sans Daddy, who headed back home. Stupid day job.). Naturally, Hayden has had to deal with all manner of sleep disruptions lately, not the least of which is adjusting to sleeping in two completely different cribs in two completely different environments. Some nights have been better than others. Tuesday night, Hayden went to sleep just fine, but awoke crying two or three times. The second time, only minutes after I thought I’d settled him down, I went back to snuggle and rock him for a little while longer.

In the dim light, I couldn’t tell if his eyes were open or shut as he lay peacefully in my arms. I stroked his hair to help comfort him and whispered “sweet mommy nothings” to him to let him know I was there and I cared.

I guess he was more awake than he let on. As I held him, marveling over how small and cuddly he could still sometimes be, his hands and feet moved continually. His feet pushed at the pillows next to us. His hands ran over my back and my face, as if he were checking to see if it was really Mom.

He finally gave it a rest and dropped his hand to his side for a moment. I watched his little hand continue to move, though, as he curled three fingers under to form a fist, leaving his index finger extended. He slowly moved his hand to play his favorite waking game.

Poke!

He went right back to sleep when I put him down that time.