Friday, August 24, 2007

Multiple Choice


When Rain wakes up in the morning, she's the happiest she may be all day. She nurses, smiles, and is all cuddly-wuddly for a half hour or so before returning to sleep. When she wakes up, she coos and snuggles with me, and I think, "This mom gig is kind of ... sweet."

Sometime about noon, I start to see the signs that Baby Jekyll is going out to lunch, and Baby Hyde is on call. After that time until dinner, Rain gives me a short minute to figure out her needs, and if I don't comply quickly, she does what I call "raise the roof." When she gets going, she can scream 'til the roof might go. Scream, not just cry, people.

Most of the time, thankfully, it's easy to figure out her needs by her cry. She has one kind of cry for hunger, another for a dirty diaper, and another for sleepiness. Other times she has gas she can't get rid of or is tired beyond her ability to put herself to sleep. The problem with this multiple choice is that (1) if I've missed her early cries, I can't tell what she wants by the time she's screaming, and (2) at least twice a day, usually in the evening, it seems like none of these are the answer. The hardest to call is gas and sleepiness. Unless she's tootin' a lot or pulling her knees to her chest, it's hard to tell if she's got gas. Because she fights sleep anyway, who knows if she's really tired or not?

Whatever the answer is, if I don't come up with it ASAP, I'm going to face the headache-inducing consequences. That's one of the hardest jobs about my new life. Rain can't talk, but she needs things. I want to give her those things, but she can't talk. The vicious cycle isn't hard to pick out.

But when I guess right .... oh, yeah! I'm so proud of myself and thankful that she's content. She gives me this look like, "Finally, you figured it out! If I had to sit in a wet diaper one more minute ..." Baby Jekyll returns for a spell, and Mommy might even get in a short nap.

There's nothing more frightening, though, then waking up next to Hyde.

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