My Sleeping Beauty

I shot this image with my camera phone on the airplane home from Boston. Daisy was so thoroughly exhausted from the whirlwind long weekend trip to Maine, complete with a not-quite-redeye flight after a long day wandering the streets of Salem, MA. She finally succumbed to a fitful slumber sprawled out across our laps. The weekend was full of sleep like this: a nap while being carried in the Moby, cuddling between her father and me at three in the morning, a catnap in the car seat her little fingers tucked around mine.

Daisy slept in her crib from the first night we brought her home. I suppose it was partly because we paid a pretty penny for the crib, partly because of I was deathly afraid that I’d somehow smash her while I was sleeping, but mostly because I didn’t know how wonderful those moments of tangled limbs and contented baby sighs could be. Now, while she’s so little, I realize that these moments are fleeting. Right now she’s my baby, but soon she will be begging for sleepovers, breaking curfew, or just too cool for a long cuddle with mom.

So, as she lay sprawled across my lap, I watched her. I admired my sleeping beauty, and I thought of how much I love having her sleep on me, with me, near me. I love watching the slow rise and fall of her chest. I love feeling the warmth of her skin. I love watching the expressions on her face. I wonder at the fact that I love her so deeply, so unconditionally, and I find that I love her more in this moment than I did just moments before.