Quiet Down Cobwebs, Dust Go To Sleep...I'm Rocking My Baby and Babies Don't Keep.

Do you remember this childhood poem that brings on sort of, what's the term?...warm fuzzies? This poem was cross stitched, framed and hung on the wall of my bedroom for the majority of my childhood...I actually think somehow it made it's way to this house and is stuffed somewhere in storage. I just could never bring myself to part with it. But, it wasn't until recently that I really started thinking about the relevance of that poem (which I will post in it's entirety below). Maybe it was my postpartum struggle after Josie was born or maybe it's the fact that somehow I woke up and Anna is a little girl and not a baby anymore, but I think about this poem often.

I think about it most evenings when i'm sitting upstairs in Josie's sweet nursery, rocking her in the rocker (which by the way, might be the most comfortable chair I have ever sat on and was worth every ridiculous penny...another reason to keep on rocking!) Some nights I find myself rocking Josie long after she has fallen asleep...I know soon enough she'll be too old to cradle. So ladies, rock your babies and take the advise of this very wise adage:

Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth, empty the dustpan, poison the moth, hang out the washing and butter the bread, sew on a button and make up a bed. Where is the mother whose house is so shocking? She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue (lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo). Dishes are waiting and bills are past due(pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo). The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew and out in the yard there's a hullabaloo but I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo. Look! Aren't her eyes the most wonderful hue?(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow, for children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow. So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep. I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.
by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton