When Gavin was a really little baby, he didn’t so much like the sleeping. Like at all.
And being the new and naive parents that we were, we did a myriad of things that made the situation worse rather than better.
But! One of the things we did right was in making up a goodnight song for Gavin.
It went like this:
Goodnight, goodnight, goodnight little Gavin.
I love you, I love you, I’ll see you in the morning.
It’s time to sleep, but we’ll meet in your dreams.
Honestly, it did nothing for him as a baby. Our hopes were that it would cue him in to the fact that it was time to sleep, but he would just stare up at us as we sang to him as if he was saying, “Go ahead and sing, you fool. We’ll still be at this in three hours. Bwahahaha!!” (Apparently in the telling of this story, poor little Gavin has become an evil little baby.)
But! Fast forward two and a half years to the month after Elliot passed away.
Things in our house were ugly. Really ugly. I was a grieving mother. I’m not sure there is a whole lot more to say. And Gavin, Gavin was scared. It was the first time he had really experienced death, and it didn’t help that our sweet dog died suddenly about two months before Elliot. He suddenly became a monster, throwing crazy tantrums all the time. He was scared. Reeeeaaaaalllly scared. He was scared either Nathan or I, or both of us were going to suddenly die.
I remember one night when Nathan went out with some friends for his birthday about a week and a half after Elliot died. (Poor Nathan and the ugly month of September). Gavin refused to go to sleep. I mean, really refused. He was convinced that Nathan wasn’t coming back. I finally laid down with him in his bed, and he fell asleep, only to wake up each time I tried to leave the room. So I stayed with him. And even in his sleep, each time I crept away from him to get a little space to sleep, he would creep towards me.
Gavin’s fear and lack of sleep was making a hard situation almost impossible.
Enter one paricular genius in my life who asked about bedtime routines, and if, per chance, we had ever sang to Gavin.
Why yes, yes we did.
And I started singing him the bedtime song again.
I remember the first time I did. It was at a nap time. I was standing next to his bed, rubbing his forehead gently and singing the song to him. He fell asleep within about a minute of me singing!!
Crazy.
And it worked again and again and again. Like magic. The tune, the words, the melodious sound of me singing (okay, maybe not that last bit) must have brought him to a more simple time, a more secure place, when the world didn’t feel quite so scary.
And we continue to sing it to him. Nathan and I sing it to him every night. Sometimes he sings along too, and sometimes he just listens. And while I don’t think I will ever forget the song, I did want put it under glass.
Using my Silhouette Cameo I used the same technique I used for Quinny’s Nickname Art, and created a piece of art that contains a little of Gavin’s sweet song.
And now, you can have one too! Not that you would want Gavin’s song, but you may have a song of your own that you have created for your kiddo that you might want under glass.
Over the summer, our friends celebrated their son’s second birthday, so I created something similar that would help them remember the song they had been singing to their Ben since he was born.
Do you have a song/family joke/hilarious thing that you say with your kid that you want framed?
The good news is that I opened an etsy shop, Humming Bird’s View, and you can order your own here.
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