Thoughts

When I was at the hospital after giving birth to Nathan, they made me watch something called "The Baby Channel" on television. It was a free station that had all sorts of programs that taught you things like how to diaper your baby, what would happen with the umbilical cord and how to care for it, all sorts of practical advice. Since I hadn't cared for an infant in YEARS, I pretty much kept the tv turned to this station all the time. However, there were two programs that were mandatory for me to watch. One was about SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) and the other was about shaken baby syndrome. Now let me just inform everyone that after you give birth you are a tad.. well.. emotional. You're also exhausted. Dead exhausted. I actually fell asleep during one visit from Jeff's family, just closed my eyes and I was out cold. Watching these two programs had me in tears... I'd hold Nathan and tell him how I would never, ever let anything like that happen to him, and than I'd cry. Not exactly uplifting television, but they definitely do the trick if the goal is to scare a new mother to death. I blame the SIDS show for why I check to make sure Nathan is still breathing multiple times during the day and night.

Anyway, I had a point here. Last night was AWFUL. Nathan was soooo gassy and for some reason our baby has a really difficult time burping. So he's gassy and it's uncomfortable for him so he SCREAMS his little head off, and while you're trying to burp he screams some more because nothing happens. You should hear us praise him when he DOES burp - the kid is going to be in school burping up a storm and thinking it's a good thing! Now even when Nathan is screaming and red faced and I'm so tired I fell going up the stairs after using the bathroom.. I can't imagine reaching the point where I might take that frustration out on him. However all bets are off when it comes to taking that frustration out on Jeff. I think I'm going to call it "Bitch At Your Husband" syndrome or "BAYHS" for short. Because people, there is NOTHING like a screaming baby at 3am that makes you want to snap at your significant other. Factor in a little sleep deprivation and the fact that one of you is going to have to go to work in 3 hours and well... It ain't pretty people. And God only knows we can find SOMETHING to pick at each other about at 3am. It can be anything from how quickly the other person is heating up a bottle to a debate on if Nathan is crying for more food or if he indeed, needs to be burped again. It's always over in the morning, the warm light of day knocking some sense into us but it still happens. So new parents beware of this syndrome, and maybe the Baby Channel will start doing a program about how to prevent this particular symptom of parenthood!