Change of plans

I wasn't up during the 6 o'clock hour this morning. Really it was closer to the normal 7:30. But I'm ok with that. You see, after an already late bedtime, I had the opportunity to be awake and out of bed for 20 or so minutes right around 1:30 this morning.

Opportunity? you ask. Yep, but I didn't think of it as an opportunity at first. I was woken up by the brightest lightening and loudest thunder I've ever heard... and it just wouldn't stop. It was one after the other after the other after the other. I believe I now have a small taste of what it must have been like to live through the Civil War or to try to sleep through air strikes in WW2. But I was so tired that I tried to ignore the noise and light intruding upon my bedroom. I pretended that it wasn't bothering me and prayed it wouldn't wake Sweet Pea, who is afraid of thunder.

Before I knew it I'd been awake long enough to need to use the bathroom. While I was up, the loudest crack of thunder smacked the sky, sounding like a very loud gun going off just outside our home. That one woke Sweet Pea. She was crying wildly. I made my way through the darkness to find her in her crib and took her with me to the living room where we could ride out the storm together.

I've never been held so tightly by one so small. Her arms gripped my shoulders more tightly than she had midnight strength for, I'm sure of it, but with each new crack of thunder or each new flash of lightening, she clung to me tighter still. It wasn't too long before her crying quieted with the distancing of the storm. She lay quietly against me now, tightening her grip with each distant thunder, but remaining quiet.

When the thunder was distant enough and one arm had slid down from my shoulder, I walked her back to her bed and lowered her in. I will remain ever thankful for that time in quiet noisy darkness with her little arms clinging to me, head on my shoulder. And I don't feel a bit bad for changing the alarm clock when I returned to my bed.

Labels: Little Moments, Raising Children, Reflections

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 9:44 AM