A sign of things to come
October 24th, 2009
Aralyn is now just over 5 weeks old. And during a few rare moments of silence while she is sleeping on this beautiful Bay Area Saturday afternoon, I realize that I haven’t blogged in quite some time. I thought I would write so much more, but life, as it usually does, had other plans.
Aralyn is healthy, beautiful, sweet, and we love her to death. She also has colic. Which means that our lives have become very much like a Vegas casino in many ways. We never sleep, it is always daytime, and our victories with her are few and far between. I won’t lie and say that it’s been easy. I can’t pretend that we are happy campers when it’s 2am and she is in her fourth hour of inconsolable crying. But I am also amazed at how ridiculously much we love her.
You see, there is nothing wrong with her. She is strong, she eats well, she grows and poops just like she is supposed to. It’s just that her personality is, well, I guess you could say “spirited.” No one knows what causes colic, but there is universal agreement on two things: (1) it peaks around 6 weeks, and (2) it goes away completely by about 3 months.
So this means that we are about to enter the 6-week peak. It is amazing how our tolerance level for crying has gone up exponentially, and surviving on less than 3 hours sleep per night has just become part of everyday life, even if I still work full days every day up in San Francisco.
As you can probably tell by now, this post is not well-written, filled with funny stories, or edited in any way. They are just the thoughts of an exhausted brain trying desperately to hang on until this phase passes. I am frustrated with my inability to “fix” this. But in the end, all I can do is hold her close to my chest, tell her I love her, and know that even though she doesn’t know what’s going on, she knows that she is safe, and she knows that she is loved.
Below is a photo montage of her first 5 weeks that I just put together this afternoon. The song in the background is called “A Sign of Things to Come,” by the brilliant Temple Scene. I chose it first and foremost for the lyrics, which are very fitting, but also because Jess and I listened to this album all the time while she was pregnant, so it will always remind me of that time. Like the song says:
You can’t hold the night out
But take your stand against the storm
And you will find your way out of here
And when it feels like the rain is seeping in
And when it feels like the walls are no match for the wind
You don’t have to run when you know where you have to go
