My Glider

Back when we were still awaiting Munchkin's arrival, one of the items I just had to have was a glider.  So I spent some time scouring Craigslist.  And finally found one with a reasonable price tag that looked in good condition. 

I still remember cleaning it in preparation for our baby.  It used to sit out in the living room.  I guess I thought I'd be out here a lot.  And, initially, I was. 

This chair has had a lot of use this past year.  It's the chair I tried to learn how to nurse a baby in.  The chair I sat in multiple times a day those first two weeks as we went through the awful (but at least partially successful) rigamarole of trying to increase my milk supply.  It's the chair I sat in the weekend I started trying to convince Baby Girl that we sleep when it's dark outside -- the chair I sat in and rocked while singing to her in the dark.

But time passed.  And our baby grew bigger.  And she started sleeping through the night.  And then she started sleeping in her own room.  And so all the extra baby paraphernalia -- like the pack and play and the glider -- which had been staged in the living room for any eventuality, was either put away or moved to her bedroom.

Now it is the chair I sit in every night as I give her her last bottle.  It is the chair where I get her sweet baby snuggles.  Pretty much the only place in the house where I can enjoy the feeling of her sleeping on me.  It is the place I sit in the middle of the night when she wakes up crying (which is rare, but it happened last night), and I hold her and rock until she goes back to sleep.

It is the place I picture when I think of the poem which includes these beautiful, poignant words:

So settle down cobwebs,
Dust go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby, 
And babies don't keep.

This glider already holds so many memories for me.  And I know there will be more ahead.  I'm grateful for it.  Grateful for it's place in the corner of our sweet girl's nursery.  Grateful for the moments it has given me with my precious daughter.  Who knew a glider would come to mean so much?

What are you grateful for today?