At this very moment, my 11-day old grandson has decided that he needs to exercise his stunning vocal cords instead of napping. The new parents are upstairs in their bedroom doing what they can to console him to no avail. Through the closed door, they are little more than vibrations in my hearing devices. I'm resisting the urge to go up and offer my help, knowing that new parents and their infants learn to live together in those struggles.
"Did you hear him last night?" my daughter asks each morning. "He was really fussy."
Honestly, I have to answer no. With my hearing aids out, I am blissfully unaware of virtually everything that happens in the house, especially behind our closed doors. Unless a light is turned on. Lights do wake me.
But little baby cries in the night are not a problem for me. Nor are they at this very moment, as I can simply slip the magnetic coil from its place on my scalp and adjust my hearing aid volume until his cries are nearly negligible. It's rather nice at times that I can disconnect from the noisiness of the day (and night) so that I can attend to other things. Like sleep.
As for my daughter and her husband, they're still in that bleary-eyed, half-exhausted-half-elated new parent stage that many of us have experienced. Tending their baby's cries with love and impatience when they'd rather be napping themselves.
Little baby cries are the blessing and the bane of new parenthood. How wonderful to hear them -- even now.
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