The Perfect Storm

I haven't blogged all weekend but not because there wasn't much happening. Quite the contrary. Raj and I are just recovering from the perfect storm.

Saturday was going down as a pretty agreeable day. Raj, Suhaana and I came back from an outing at our friend's late evening. Raj and I were tired and Suhaana looked like she'd played an awful lot and might be ready for a nap. She has 3 to 4 hour stretches in the night these days.

She fed around 11:30 and then we were all set to call it a night by 12:15am or so. Lately Suhaana and I have been co-sleeping. It's not been so much of a policy decision as just a relatively more convenient route. But that night we decided to put her in her crib- not a stranger to her crib, but it has been a couple weeks since she's used it. I thought perhaps it's time for Suhaana and her crib to rekindle old friendships and spend more time together. I was also scared that too much of co sleeping may be setting things up for a longer and more painful transition to the crib later. So, we took the decision, put her in the crib and called it a night. We were both dead tired.

At 2:20am I heard some mild grunts and squirming noises. Nothing overly unusual. Suhaana is not a quiet sleeper, so I wasn't alarmed, but just hoped she'll just go back to deep slumber. Such a hopeless optimist or maybe just desperately wishful thinker.

In a few minutes it suddenly started.. like a tornado. Full blast, high pitch crying; so loud that we felt a train just hit us. We both got up, trying to figure out what happened. Tried to pacify her, tried to feed her, tried to get her warmer, the crying was persistent. I started diaper-changing but it was difficult to focus with the world-has-come-to-an-end bawling. More than anything else I just got so worried because her crying made me feel like she's in some kind of chronic pain.

Finally after she was changed (diaper and clothes) and fed a full bottle of milk that it seemed like the storm had passed. She calmed down and was back on her best behavior like nothing had happened. Raj was not convinced. He put her down in the bouncer and started giving her a good talking-to: 'This is not good. Why did you cry so much? Milk was just round the corner, you could've told us as you usually do that you're hungry.. What's with this crazy crying spell?'. With all the sleep deprivation and exhaustion, irritability is but rational. While he was talking to her, she was just calm and staring right back at him. I was already telling him that that's enough now, when she smiled at him. Just a crack, just one twitch. Both Raj and I burst out laughing, just rolling over ourselves in love with her.

I guess that's all girls have to do to melt their dads. As for melting their moms, I don't think they even have to do that!