Blogging Baby

Attention

I was flipping through New Beginnings (LLL E-Magazine) this week and saw a Mom had written in asking for other Mom’s thoughts about her frequently waking 18 month old. Emilio isn’t a frequent waker, but he’s still up 1-3 times a night and nurses to go back to sleep during most wakings. I was curious to read the responses. Most of them were centered around the experience of shifting night time duties to the Fathers and the difference that made with night wakings. Absolutely something to think about. One response stuck out to me though, in it the Mother wrote about providing more attention during the day to her daughter and expressed that she often found during days when it wasn’t paid she was more wakeful at night looking for Mom.

Last night, Emilio had a very typical day and slept through until 5am. It felt great to get 7ish hours of sleep uninterrupted. I was so much more awake in the morning. When I thought back to the night before, analyzing everything to see if I could find a difference I could attribute I thought about what he’d eaten and then focused on dinner time. Both Matt and I were at the table paying attention to him. Often during dinner I’m up and down multitasking so I can fit in all the things I need and want to do in a weeknight.

Tonight, I sat with Emilio at dinner and was attentive. I just sat with my Son while he ate dinner. I laughed at his faces, I marvelled at his expressions and the boy I’m seeing him become. I answered his questions, I smiled and encouraged him. I stared him down when he tried to get a reaction out of me by dropping his food. The stares he gave me! It was so hard to not laugh.

My son, he is such a ham. And smart, so smart. I’m in awe of him. Why haven’t I done that earlier? What am I really getting out of my multitasking while he’s eating? Maybe 5-10 more minutes of time? It’s not worth it.

The sleep, it would be nice. But the dinner, that got my attention.