Love story of a baby’s parents

Parenting is a tough job. It not only drains you physically, but also puts your relationship with your partner to a test. When you are busy handling bawls, throw-ups and dirty diapers, you are left with little patience to pick up the wet towel your darling husband left on the bed as usual. It is tough on the new fathers too. They find it difficult to handle a hormonal, tired and frustrated wife and a frighteningly tiny baby who cries for unknown reasons.
This is when your love is tested.
My darling daughter, baby S, as I usually refer her as, was an insomniac. For the initial six months, she stayed awake the entire night and went off to sleep at 4 am. Naturally, I was sleep-deprived. Trust me, lack of sleep has is a more powerful deliriant than Dhatura. At that time, it doesn’t matter whether you have eaten or not, whether food is getting cooked in the house or not or whether your husband could locate his relevant piece of attire or not. All that matters is stealing a wink or two while your baby is asleep. And in this quest, whatever stands between you and the few minutes of dream time, earns your instant enmity, even if he is the love of your life. Patience runs low.
Therefore, with the advent of a baby in the house and our lives, the couple took a backseat and parenthood dominated. It is indeed difficult to think of romance when you are overwhelmed with your child and smell like the milk that the baby is so frequently throwing up on your shoulder.
We needed ‘we’ time, there had to be a way.
But how?
That night, I braced myself to stay awake till the wee hours of the morning while my husband went to sleep in the other room as he had to go to work the next day and could not afford to go to office looking like a zombie. I took out a novel to read, while baby S was busy gazing at the fan; there is something about babies and fans, I do not know what! I was reading a medical thriller and it had me hooked. I tried to read fast and finish one chapter at least before baby S demanded attention. Two chapters and fifteen minutes later, I realised that it was too quiet. I looked at my side and discovered that baby S was asleep. Asleep at 10 pm? I could not believe it. Was she trying to fool me? She was too young for that. I laughed at the foolishness of my thoughts. Shock does that to you, you know.
I went to the other room and told my husband, who was still awake. He came back to check, finding it unbelievable as well.
We had just been granted ‘we’ time!
We were both quiet for some time and then we looked at each other and smiled. Now that we had time, we did not know what to do with it.
My husband brewed us some coffee and we both sat and watched a comedy show that was playing on TV. That one hour, we just sat together and laughed. That laughter was the echo of our hearts that resounded that all was well and we were going to learn and adjust soon, and together. We were new to the journey, but we were together. There is magic in moments spent together in joy.
We started stealing such moments whenever we could. It doesn’t make you a bad parent, it makes you a better one actually!
When worries threaten to disrupt, smiles and laughter bring you back closer together.
They say ‘
If you can laugh together, you can work together’
I say
‘If you can laugh together, you can work it out together!’

Author’s note: “This post is a part of #LoveAndLaughter activity at BlogAdda in association with Caratlane.”