When sleeping in 'till 9 is a special blessing

I am tired lately. Thus, I am really thankful that I am a mostly stay-at-home mom who works in the evening. Baby M was in bed by 8:40ish last night, I was in bed probably around 9:45.
M woke up at 6:15 and being the tired mommy I am lately, I made her a bottle, cuddled with her and let her drink hoping in my heart she'd fall back asleep. She didn't appear to be attuned to that desire, and was quite awake and willing to try to sidle off our (high) bed as she does when she's going down stairs, so I set her down, stayed right where I was and kept one eye on her while I laid there, comfy cozy.
She knocked the monitor down and was happily playing with that, and when I heard too much silence I looked down and saw her face down, rear up (lately, her normal sleeping position) in the dog's bed. Laughing to myself and wondering if she were really sleeping, I cautiously began to move and she sat quickly up. Nope, not sleeping. I laid back down, but kept watching.
She moved around a lot, sitting up, laying down, up, down, pulling Roxy's blanket all over her (yuck but who is going to take that from a happy baby? Not me.) Finally she was staying in the head down, butt up position long enough I though she was sleeping. She looked wide-eyed at me when I picked her up, fussed until I gave her the monitor again, then proceeded to go back to sleep curled next to me.
Bliss.

The fact that we slept until 9 (or maybe 9:15) and missed the news was really not all that disappointing to me—I got to sleep! Maybe my right arm was sore and asleep from the odd angle but that is totally worth it!
Mornings like that I almost feel guilty telling my hubby about, especially since he's been getting to work at 5 a.m. On the other hand, his horrid alarm wakes me every time and then it's usually an hour long process for me to get my mind to shut up and go back to sleep, so maybe telling him we slept late is my personal paybacks for waking me at obscene hours of the night.
Either way, sleeping in like that has lately been a particularly special blessing for me, allowing me to catch up on the sleep I missed (going to bed late, waking up from too much water before bed, hubby's alarm) while also getting to cuddle my soon-to-be one year old who refuses to cuddle when fully awake.
I typically am the "no feeding to sleep" mom, but I'll admit it: If it gets me even one extra hour of zzzz's, I'll take it. I'll just make sure she doesn't eat to sleep in the evening, and it all evens out.

Of the many photos I tried to snap of her in the little red headband with her patriotic suit, this was literally the best one. I admire the photographers who have figured out the tricks to keeping young children at enough distance that they can't touch your lens while getting close enough to shoot at 35 mm, because it's hard! Or, keeping the child from just getting up and walking to you with pudgy fingers ready for smudging.