Did That Really Happen?

8:30 pm and Rose is already crying from her crib. I wait to see if she settles herself back down. After a few minutes, it is clear this isn’t going to sooth itself. My husband goes into try and calm her down. I’m still laying in bed with Adi who has just stopped belting out her crazy bedtime tunes-anything that passes through her three year old brain. Still wide eyed, she watches to see if I’m going to leave to rescue her dad and sister. I wait.

Quiet and then more crying as Rose refuses to go back to bed. I hear Arnauld head for the stairs. “Do you have Rose?” I whisper into the darkness.

“Yes,” he whispers back.

I climb out of Adi’s twin size bed, promising to return as I decide to try and get Rose down myself. I’m confident Arnauld wasn’t doing it right.

That was the start of our very long night. When Rose refused to go back to bed for me, I knew things were serious. Her painful cries told us that something wasn’t right, although she had been fine all day. She had no other symptoms.

Through the wee hours of the night, I discovered that Rose could fall asleep if I stood and swayed back and forth in the kitchen. The only light coming from the moon and the kitchen clock, slowing ticking through the night. Her little head resting perfectly on my shoulder, I was made for this. Her little left hand resting on my cheek.

There were stretches that I could sit up in bed, careful not to disturb my sleeping bundle. As I watched the clock creep closer and closer to morning, I was both delirious and in awe that it was just the mere act of holding my sweet baby that brought her comfort-that got her through the night.

As the sun awoke, so did Rose. Giggling and babbling happily. *Did last night really happen?

*Oh, it happened! This has been our new routine just about every other night for the last week. Two trips to the pediatrician tell us that there is nothing going on with her ears or throat. “Maybe she’s lonely…” one doctor suggested. I’m hoping that it is just new teeth making their way to the surface, for our Rose shouldn’t have any reason to ever feel lonely!