Elmer has gotten to a point that I can just lay him down in the crib when it is time to go to bed (or nap), and he goes to sleep. Sometimes he talks and rolls around for 10-15 minutes, but he almost never cries.
We were at my mom's house today, helping them unpack. It was time for Elmer's nap, so I held him for a little bit - he was looking around at all the different surroundings. When I laid him down in the pack n play, he immediately stood up and started crying. I ended up having to lie in the bed with him to get him to go to sleep.
This made me think about these babies that come into foster care. Even at ten months old, they KNOW that something weird/traumatic/scary is going on. Machine Gun was the same age as Elmer is now, during the few days I had him. I could tell that he knew things were different - he would immediately look up at the ceiling fan whenever we would enter a room. He screamed when I would even stand up to walk across the room; he had to be rocked to sleep and held a LONG time before I could put him down.
When in a strange place and a strange bed, even with the person he knows as mama, Elmer was scared and had a hard time going to sleep. I can't even imagine what it is like for these babies who come into care and have to do a strange place and a strange bed, without even the comfort of a familiar person.
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