Saturday, June 30, 2012

Sleeping Babes

When I wrote about Nora's big girl bed and included pictures of her sleeping in her crib, I received several emails from other moms saying, "I never take pictures of my kids sleeping!" 

Since then I've been paying more attention to the pictures I take of my babies sleeping.  Every night before I go to bed, I always ALWAYS go into each bedroom to look at my kids, rub their soft skin, and give them lots of smooches.  I just can't resist them. 

Nora is the heaviest sleeper, so I get the most snuggling with her.  I can kiss her round cheeks approximately 437 times without her even stirring.  Nolan is the lightest sleeper, and I can't even give him one kiss or one loving caress without him rolling over and adjusting his covers and getting all huffy over being disturbed.  Griffin falls somewhere in the middle.  Some nights I can nuzzle his face without consequence, and some nights he wipes my kisses off and rolls over.

Taking pictures in a dark room with my cell phone can also be a challenge.  With Nolan being on the top bunk and being a super light sleeper, it's nearly impossible to get a picture of him sleeping.  The initial flash wakes him up, so the few pictures I get are of him squinting and trying to cover his face.

So, I've compiled all my pictures of the kids sleeping over the last couple months so you can see what I get to see and snuggle. 

First, Nolan:

In our bed while Jared was gone
Ok, he's obviously not sleeping.  But he read me the whole book before bedtime!

Now Griffin.  He tends to sleep in odd positions, and sometimes in odd places.  


He fell asleep like this while I was reading the kids their bedtime books on the couch.
He insisted on wearing these "zip jammies" that are way too small.
 




A couple of the boys together:

And finally, Nora.  See if you can spot a consistency in most of her sleeping pictures.

And my very favorites:




Did you spot Nora's books in every photo?  This chick cannot get enough books.  Her bed is full of them and yet she gets excited to take new books back with her everyday at naptime and bedtime.  She looks at books until she falls asleep.  I love it!

These photos also capture some of the kids sleeping habits.  For example, you can see that each child has a blanket they like to snuggle (the light blue one for Nolan, the green one for Griffin, and the white one for Nora).  Nolan likes to cocoon himself in every blanket he owns, no matter how hot he gets.  Griffin changes his covering blanket pretty frequently.  Nora often prefers to only be covered with her white blanket, even though she's almost longer than it is.

See?  It's worth the risk of waking your child in order to capture them sleeping.  Nuzzling my sleeping babies is one of my favorite parts of my day.  These pictures are my way of remembering all those moments.  

So, I challenge you to take more pictures of your babies/kids sleeping.  Try to get one every night for a week.  Or maybe once per week from here on out.  Or however often you'd like to do it.  They are growing and changing so quickly (despite my pleas for them to stop), and I won't have another chance to capture these moments!




Jessica

4 comments:

  1. Ok, so many things to say about this post, I don't even know where to begin. Nolan is so much like me as a sleeper; don't bother me when I'm asleep. It will wake me and there will be grumpiness. "Wake at your own risk" is a sign I've wanted to wear to bed many times. Griffin's sleeping positions have me laughing so hard. The one with the top half of his body on the couch is a hoot! My favorite picture of all is Griff laying on Nolan in the car. There is so much love on Nolan's face I could just melt. Sweet Nora and her books. Doesn't get much better than that! I especially love the ones on her back with her arms above her head - pure relaxation. Now Jessica, there is a photo on here in which Griffin's clock reads 4:59. I know that is not pm because it's too close to dinner time for him to still be sleeping. Why in the world are you not sound asleep?!? I have heard rumor that there are two 4:59's in the day, but I have never seen the one that is captured in this photo. Well, since middle of the night infant feedings at least.

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  2. Haha! I wondered if anyone would notice that 4:59 time. It was actually one afternoon when he was laying in bed playing a game and fell asleep. I try my hardest not to meet up with that other 4:59. Not to say that I haven't butted heads with that other 4:59...but I try to avoid ever seeing it.

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  3. Excuse me, just realized the time is actually 3:59. The other 3:59 is a time I loathe just as much as the other 4:59.

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  4. Oh you're right. See, thinking about that clock, picturing it being am, oh I was so bent out of shape I typed the wrong time. Regardless, I will sleep much better tonight, knowing you are not doing photo sessions in the middle of the night!

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