Magic Moments (Week 26, Day 6)

I cannot believe what happened last night. It's been a long week at work, and Maddy hasn't been sleeping quite as well as she normally does. Two nights ago, she woke up at 4:45, and Phil got up and rocked her until it was time to go to work. Needless to say, it was a long work day for Daddy. Last night, I sent him to bed early to catch up on sleep, and took Maddy duty.

She slept soundly for a few hours, and then started her mid evening fuss. Sometimes this means a quick trip to the crib to replace the binky, and others it's nursing and getting cozy for a long haul. You never quite know what you are going to get.

Once in Maddy's dimly lit room, I could tell she was somewhere between sleep and awake - not so alert that she was awake and wanted to be held, and not so asleep that she would roll over and go to bed. I stood by her crib and rubbed her belly, and attempted to get her back to sleep. Once she was close to drifting off, I slowly backed away and tiptoed out of the room.

This is when the magic happened. I returned to my computer to get some work done, and brought the baby monitor out to check in and make sure Maddy was doing alright. I could not believe what I saw. Maddy eyes were wide open, and she was taking her binky in and out if her mouth. She wasn't crying or upset in the slightest, so I resisted the urge to go in and put her to sleep - I decided to watch and see if she was learning to self soothe. Maddy laid there, playing with her binky and staring at her mobile for a while. Once she got bored with that, she rolled over, scooted across her crib to the mobile, and began swatting at the base until SHE TURNED IT ON. By herself. At 6 months old. I could not believe it. I stared in amazement as the mobile started to move, and she rolled on her back to watch it. Every time an animal made it's descent on the mobile, Maddy would reach up and attempt to grab it - and wasn't too far off from getting a grip on a few of them. When Maddy would get bored, she'd roll and scoot around her crib, testing out binkies or throwing them out of the crib. Then she eventually came back to the mobile and stared, and decided she was done, and rolled over and went to sleep.

I watched the whole encounter with my mouth gaping. I could not believe she was able to turn on the mobile all by herself! I could barely believe what I was seeing, and wanted to wake up Phil so he wouldn't think I was making it all up. It was absolutely amazing, and the best part of my day.