I love my child. But honestly, what I would love more than anything right now is something even close to a good night’s sleep.
Far too often, my nightly state of bliss, those precious and magical few hours where I can close my eyes and maybe, if I’m lucky, fall asleep, abruptly come to an end when I hear something loud and whiny.
To no one’s surprise, it was my son, crying. Oh Joy! It was 2:30 a.m., and I think: “I have to deal with this now. Goodbye sleep, hello crying child.”
I rushed over to his room, and a mixture of exhaustion and panic set in. “Maybe something is wrong, maybe he is hurt,” I thought. I picked him up and started asking him what was wrong. Obviously, my one year-old son couldn’t answer me yet, but I tried anyways.
When situations like this occur, my go-to solution is food - always food. I mean, if he is eating he can’t cry, right?! I was still completely exhausted, but I decided to take him into the kitchen and get him some food.
In the meantime, my son’s cries have now woken up my husband and I worried that because we live in an apartment, he may have woken up the neighbours as well - so I move even faster to take him to the kitchen.
My husband held him while I struggled to find something, anything, to feed him. Of course, my son wanted ME to hold him and as his crying got louder, I got more nervous.
I frantically rummaged through my refrigerator and I found two simple items, a yogurt and a mini muffin and I quickly presented them to him as a gift from me to him. He looked at them, then me, then again at the food and finally decided on the mini muffin.
“Thank goodness,” I said to my husband, and we both breathed a sigh of relief.
As my son rested on my shoulder finishing his muffin, his satisfied expression let us know that he was in the comfortable in the presence of his mommy and daddy. Even in the midst of exhaustion and worrying that I didn’t have enough strength to carry him, my toddler wrapped his arms as tight around me as he could, tucked his head under my chin and peacefully rested it on my chest.
Through these actions, he showed us that he knows we are always there to provide him comfort.
After that, we lay on the couch together, my son was on my chest, my husband was in the bedroom, already fast asleep, and soon enough, so were we.
We did it! Or should I say, I did it! Another “I love you mommy and daddy” moment.
These are the kinds of moments I think all parents need, just knowing that your kiddo loves and appreciates you makes it worth all of the (mostly) sleepless nights.
I must say that, despite all of this, I truly feel blessed to have a little one and to hear the words “momma… and dada…” come out of his mouth.