Bedtime Snuggles

Thaddeus is such a snuggler. Tonight we were having a hard time getting him to bed and I think it was because he was just a little low on snuggling. He had a lot of good play time with me today and it was a great day, but when Nathan went to put him to bed and I went to put Callia to bed, Thaddeus just cried and cried like we were killing him. I put Callia to bed, which is not a short process, and as I came down her stairs and still heard Thad crying, I decided to see if Nathan needed any backup. I opened the door and he was leaning over the crib rubbing Thad's back and trying to get him to lay down, but Thad was just a tearful, boogery, sobbing mess. So with Nathan's permission I picked him up and held him. Then when Nathan was going to leave the room Thad was very upset about that, so Nathan stayed in the room and paced around. We went through several rounds of throwing the blanket on the floor and fussing and getting put back in the crib and crying and being picked back up and crying a little less and then getting mad about something and starting over. I think it takes a while once he gets upset for him to realize that I am in for the long haul and I am going to be there for him as long as he needs me. At some point Nathan decided to go ahead and leave which temporarily made things worse. But at the end of the next "round" when I picked him up, he snuggled into my shoulder with his blanket, didn't scream when I sat down in the rocking chair, and we rocked together comfortably. I kissed the top of his little head and the back of his little hand which was on my shoulder. He pushed the back of his hand back onto my lips for another kiss. Then again and again, and I must have kissed his hand two dozen times. Then I started kissing his little fuzzy head again and must have kissed his head a few dozen times as well. I squeezed him and he "sang" a song that went "uuuuUUUHhh....uuuuUUUHhh....dada..dada...dada..daDA...daduuuuhda" and rubbed his face on me and got a few more kisses on top of his head. After about ten minutes he was ready to be put in bed. He didn't seem any closer to being asleep than he was when we started, but I guess he had been thoroughly snuggled and was secure enough to lay down and try to sleep.