The Crib

9:30 a.m.  I have to go to the bathroom.  I explain to Willow that this is just one of those things that grownups have to do, that they have to go someplace to do it and can't just do it in their pants like she can, and that it's also something they prefer to do alone, and definitely not while holding someone else.  I put her down in her crib.

9:37 a.m.  I pick up the shrieking baby from her crib.  It occurs to me that what with Willow being three months old and all, not to mention all the sitting up that's been going on, it's really truly time for her to move out of her basket and into the crib, and there's just no putting it off any longer.  While holding her, I move all the crap that's been piling up in the corners of the unused crib--down quilt that won't be in use for, oh, a couple of years, but we bought it anyway, various brightly colored toys intended to stimulate the child while I do things like go to the bathroom, etc.  I take her sleep positioner out of the basket, put it in the crib, and generally do as much as I can while holding her.

9:50 a.m.  I reach the point where I can't finish the job while holding her.  I put her down in her now-denuded basket while I make the crib as inviting and safe as possible.

 9:53 a.m. I pick up the once again shrieking baby.  She is now seriously pissed off, and refuses to forgive me.  I give in to that laziest of make-the-baby-stop-crying methods, and turn on Sonic Youth.  Exhausted from all that crying, she is asleep before the song ends.

9:57 a.m.  I put her down in her crib.  Shockingly, she doesn't wake up.  I type a triumphant email to Dave about the crib's sleep-inducing powers.

10:13 a.m.  I hear a sudden scream from the bedroom.  I go in and pat her, and help her put her thumb in her mouth,* and she goes back to sleep.

10:24 a.m.  I get this far in the post, and she is still asleep.  I go take a picture to prove it.

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10:27 a.m.  Despite my doing this very stupid and risky thing, she is still asleep.



* Yeah, the thumbsucking.  It's a new thing.  We'd been trying to get her to use a pacifier for, oh, two and a half months now, and we had no success, except to induce her to really figure out how to suck her thumb.  Having been a thumbsucker, I know the joys well, and am actually sort of envious watching her.  But then again, I sucked my thumb until age 7, and vowed I would never encourage such a thing in my child.  And I stuck to that until I encountered the power of the thumb and its ability to put a baby to sleep.  Unparalleled, even by rock music.  

Plus, it's really really cute.