| “People who say that they sleep like a baby, usually don't have kids” |
Two nights before Riddhie was born, I remember saying something about enjoying the stillness and silence of the night to her mom. We could hear the clock tick aloud, the crickets outside and even the movement in the flat above ours. There was an uncanny calmness about the night which I knew in my heart, wouldn’t last long.
As expected, life changed within a span of few days after that.
Dear Riddhie,
I recall it was about 0345 hrs IST on November 21, 2010 and I recorded that as a day when we almost started pulling our hair out.
It was the day when you had decided for the first time that you want to stay awake through the night.
We as your parents were doing all in our mortal capacities to help you catch some sleep. All possible methods were tried out. We took turns rocking you on our knees and in our arms, we did all we knew - rubbed your tummy, your forehead and massaged your arms and legs to help you relax but none of it was helpful. You wanted to throw your arms and legs and as soon we got you on your bed, you would start wailing.
I carried you around for about hour and half in the middle of the night and you kept dozing off randomly only to open your eyes wide open and cry again the moment I put you down.
We called up your doctor and sought his advise. He said it was normal for infants to behave so and asked us to take you out for a drive. (Now this was the strangest advise I ever got from a medic, perhaps he hated being disturbed at night like that). Nonetheless, this was exactly what we did. We wrapped you in your little blanket got you in your mom’s lap and went out for a short drive. (I don’t know what car I would be driving when you get to read this, but for the records we took you out in my first car - the Hyundai Santro).
As I drove around the block within the society, you kept rolling your eyes and looking at your mum. I guess we would have nearly spent 20 minutes driving around in circles when you decided to give your poor parents a break and graciously agreed to take a nap. Without losing any time, we rushed back and tucked you in your bed. Thankfully you slept peacefully after that for next couple of hours.
As I thought about that night over next few days, I realized that you probably shall never get to know all the effort and the patience it took us just to ensure that you have sound sleep for a single night.
Maybe I shall keep strolling up and down the block waiting for you to come back from some party or a girl gang gig, who knows? I guess as a parent, my anxiety shall never cease. Don’t know if you shall ever realize this concern or choose to ignore it altogether. I guess I shall leave these questions for time to answer.
For now, maybe I shall get up from my chair, shutdown my laptop and come pick you up on my shoulder once again and rock you back to sleep and croon “So jaaa raajkumari….so jaa”.
That was a really lovely post.
ReplyDeleteWe all love it when our parents tell our childhood stories to us.I am sure riddhie will cherish these letters too. And will appreciate that you keyed in all the 'effort and patience' more than the effort itself.
Love you, rajkumari :)