It is midnight.
The monitor lit up, the crying starts, which turns to screaming really fast. The husband (on night duty) gets up while I turn around to try to continue my sleep. I’ve been sleeping really bad lately due tummy aches (I blame it on the brown rice and rye bread I ate after a 12-km run) so catching a bit more snooze is a matter of life and death.
Fast forward to 20 minutes later, the baby is still screaming and the husband sounds like he is about to reprimand her for this behaviour. After all, it’s bad manners to wake your parents up in the middle of the night just when they’ve entered the deep sleep zone. So I get up of bed, put my kimono on and zombie walk to the bedroom next door. The baby probably smells me so she crawls to me right away, hugs my neck and sobs on my chest. And stops crying.
“Dat meen je niet (You’ve got to be kidding)!” exclaims the husband. The kid usually settles down when the husband pacifies her. But not this time. She is inconsolable. Which is odd, because she’d been sleeping through the night for the last three months (except when we are with the in-laws, in a nice hotel or during the day). Or at least until 5am, when she would cry for the breasts.
Tonight is just a nightmare. Was it the sweet potatoes and pineapple chicken I gave her for dinner? Or that she was 30-minutes behind her bed time? Stomach cramp? Why is she suddenly screaming bloody murder in the middle of the night? Nightmares?
