מלכים א, פרק ג׳, פסוק כ׳

The mother of the living child recounts the tragic sequence of events that unfolded in the dark, detailing the secret exchange of the infants. Once the other woman realized her own baby had died, she rose in the middle of the night and took the living child away [אברבנאל]. To explain how such a theft could happen without her noticing, the mother clarifies that she was consumed by a deep sleep [מצודת דוד, אברבנאל].

The specific placement of the babies serves as the mother's strongest proof that the dead child is not hers. She explains that her living baby was taken from beside her, rather than from her arms. The dead infant had suffocated because his mother had rolled onto him while holding him closely in her embrace. By contrast, the living child had been sleeping safely next to his mother. The other woman executed the swap by taking the living baby and intentionally placing the dead infant directly into the sleeping mother's arms. This was a calculated trick designed to make the sleeping woman wake up and believe she had accidentally crushed her own baby to death [מלבי״ם].