Mother and Baby- Story of 1 Day

3AM

I hear cries in my dream. I try to ignore it & sleep. I hear it again & this time, I knew it wasn’t a dream, but my baby girl crying. It’s around 6 weeks since my baby was born. My body is all sore & I had slept at 1AM. I don’t understand why she is crying. I cradle her, see my husband snoring away to sleep, walk around the room cooing. Still crying. I start feeding her & she’s calm. Thank God. She is fed now & I wait for her to burp. She burps & slowly drifts away into sleep. I sleep too. It’s 3:30AM

5AM

Cries again. What now? I take her in my arms & realize she wasn’t crying for no reason. Time for a diaper change. Change diaper, clean, cradle her. She’s still wide awake. Husband still snoring. She admires the fan, smiles & makes baby sounds. I decide to put her on the bed & sleep. I take my hands off her, she starts crying. I give up & decide to stay awake with her. It’s 6:00AM. Feed again, clean, burp, she sleeps. I try to sleep.

6:30AM

The door bell rings. I wait. Rings again. I pretend to be asleep. Husband gives in & opens the door to collect milk. I try to fall asleep despite the sounds(shower, toaster, laptop, the ‘loud bye’ while leaving to work).

8:30AM

Door bell rings again. Curse the person who invented it. I open the door & let the maid in. Cannot sleep now as I have to monitor the maid. I start preparing for lunch.

11:00AM

Maid finishes her work & leaves. I have my breakfast quickly & climb the bed to steal a short nap. I close my eyes & the little monster wakes up. It’s like a programmed behaviour. Wake up when your Mom decides to sleep. The other maid comes to give her a massage & bath.Feed again, clean, burp, coo, cradle, she sleeps. It’s 2:00PM.

3:00PM

I take a shower & sit down to eat my lunch. My distant aunt calls to congratulate me & give tips on baby care till 4:00PM. I run into the bedroom & sleep.

5:00PM

Door bell again. I want to cry now. I want to ignore it. I open the door & it’s my husband’s maternal cousin. She came to see the baby &brought cute clothes for her. We sit & talk.

6:00PM

Feeding time. Feed, clean, burp, diaper change, clean. Cousin plays with the baby for sometime. I am secretly hoping that, she will tell me to sleep & she’ll take care of my baby. Hope remains a hope.

8:00PM

Cousin leaves, baby asleep, husband comes home. Seeing my sleep deprived face, he decides to help me with preparing dinner. Cooking’s done, serve food, eat, last course & YES she cries again. How many times can a baby so tiny pee? Diaper change, clean, husband takes the baby, I finish my meal. She’s happy in her dad’s arms.

10:00PM

Feed again. I don’t understand how can such a small baby get hungry so often? But I am told to feed with a gap of 4 hrs. She’s awake now & starts admiring her dad & the fan. This is when we get some time to talk. Suddenly she gives us a random wide smile.

Yes it’s surreal.

For something so beautiful, I can go through all of this, for the rest of the days to come.

1:00AM

She sleeps. We all sleep. And it’s starts all over again.