Hailey is almost ten weeks old, and things have gotten a little easier. We have established a good sleep routine, which has made the nights more tolerable. Traci is getting up a couple of times at night to feed, but most experts say that the baby will start sleeping through the night somewhere around the third or fourth month.
Hailey only takes brief naps during the day; we have pretty much given up on those 90-minute daytime naps that other parents enjoy. We thought that was the norm, but several books we consulted said that some babies just don’t take long naps. I guess God chose to give us a good-looking baby instead of a good sleeper.
Hailey also went in last week for her first round of shots. I don’t remember at the moment what ailments the shots were supposed to prevent (Measles? Rubella? Scurvy?), but I trust that the doctor wasn’t giving her some kind of neurotoxin or performance enhancing drug.
Hailey got an oral dose of some yellow liquid, which she immediately spit up, followed by three injections in her legs. I had prepared myself for the crying, which was inevitable. What I wasn’t prepared for, however, was the nurse’s total indifference to my screaming child. Whereas the doctor had a great bedside manner with babies (baby talk, tickling, etc.), Nurse Ratched seemed to mock Hailey. She uttered phrases like “Does it hurt?” with all the compassion of a woman forced to work at a pediatrician’s office after getting laid off from the sausage factory.
Freshly-stuck Hailey did well, though, crying for a few minutes before falling asleep in her car seat. Before we left the pediatrician’s office, they gave us the ominous warning that she could be “fussy” later, and told us to give her liquid Tylenol every four hours. We ran some errands and Hailey slept soundly, but by the time we got home we had passed the four-hour mark, a mistake we will NEVER make again.
When she awoke form her nap, Hailey commenced screaming, her legs red and tender from the morning’s shots. The more she cried, the more she shook her legs. The more she shook her legs, the more it hurt. The more it hurt, the more she cried, and so on. We gave her the Tylenol and applied a cool washrag to her legs, but that didn’t seem to help. Her screams would die down into loud crying, then softer crying, followed by a brief moment of just heavy breathing, Followed by more screaming. This was not my definition of “fussy.” Traci and I had to soothe her in 15-minute shifts, since neither of us could stand to be in the room for long. All in all, she cried for about 90 minutes before finally calming down.
I suspect all new parents experience that “Holy sh*t, what have we gotten ourselves into?” moment at some point. I have already experienced it a few times myself. Believe it or not, I didn’t experience it when Hailey was screaming over her sore legs. No, I experienced that holy sh*t moment later when I realized that her crying would be much worse and last much longer when she comes down with an illness, as all children do at some point. Lord help us.
This is turning into a more negative post than I had anticipated, so let me leave you with this: it’s all very much worth it. Despite the crying, despite the late-night feedings, despite the dirty diapers, the loss of free time and expendable income, it’s all completely, unquestionably worth it. When I am talking to Hailey and she looks up and gives me a big, goofy smile, everything is right with the world. How could you not love a face like this?
