18.5.11

Go to Sleep You Little Baby*

I know a couple whose first, and so far only, child is nine months old.  There were crying jags when he wouldn't sleep for the world.  My heart went out to them but my mind quickly remembered my own sleepless nights with crying babies.  Been there, done that, no thank you.

There were countless readings of "Goodnight Moon", "The Velveteen Rabbit", "The Giving Tree", "Where the Wild Things Are".  And the singing!  Oy, vey!  The singing!  My repertoire consisted of "Hush, Little Baby", "Amazing Grace", "Down in the River", and any other gospel that my brain could remember at least a couple of lines.

And how many times would I start out of the door but the baby would realize I was leaving and start crying again?  They all have a knack for knowing when a parent is suffering from sleep deprivation and, in the back of their evil little minds, want to drive us over the sanity cliff.

So it was with much laughter that I stumbled upon a soon-to-be released children's book.  "Go the F**k to Sleep".  Those exact words crossed my mind more than once.  And anybody who claims that they love their baby every minute of every hour of every day and would never, never, never think something like that?  Well, as the author says in an interview I heard on the radio recently, "they're just full of sh*t."

*Title inspired by this.

5 comments:

  1. Once our youngest started walking she got hooked on the Little Critter series and I'll bet I read "Just Go To Bed!" at least 500 times. It got to the point that when she toddled over and plopped that book in my lap.....again..... I'd try to ad lib and that earned me a stern "That's not what it says, Daddy!"

    Our friends delighted in telling us that having a baby at our age (pushing 40) would keep us young. Laura's step-sister (mine) was 18 and her step-brother (my wife's) 13 when she came along. While my wife and I agreed that we had far more patience with Laura there were plenty of times when I was sure i'd have a heart attack trying to keep up with that little bundle of energy.

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  2. It already went #1. One does not love a child any less, just because the human body needs sleep.

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  3. I like the image that goes with the title too. Sleeping tigers heaped on top of each other.

    WV:"Reality". Yes.:)

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  4. I can't BELIEVE IT!!! I got INTO your BLOG! This feat deserves all the capitals I can make here!!!

    Yupper, I remember the crying and all very well. My oldest boy was the worst. he has]d what is/was commonly called the three month colic. Man..what a pi\unishment. Cried all night..slept all day.

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