The Night Monsters

I had a very peaceful night yesterday. I woke up only about some 11 times throughout the night. Twice for my elder 4 year old son – once for choo-choo (i.e. his term for the ‘loo’) and once for scary boo-boos under the bed. The rest were for my one week old younger son who has this cycle of feeding – dirtying the diaper – pissing on mom as she is changing that diaper and feeding once again. To bachelors and childless couples, this may sound like a crazy night. Definitely not one that they would call ‘peaceful’. However any night not interrupted by wailing screams, frantic phone calls to doctors, thermometers, sponging, medicines and tears is a peaceful night for all mothers.


When I was a new mother the first time, I did not have this wisdom. Sleepless night after a painful c-section made me groggy, irritated and tearful. Around the second week, my son had a bout of colic. His painful cries made me desperate. I would have gladly bitten off my arm if it would have eased up his pain.


As the years rolled by the night monsters rolled into my life. The fear of what the night is to bring gripped me. Scorching temperatures, painful tummy, projectile vomiting, diarrhea, feet pain, knee pain, eye injury and lots more have kept me awake through many nights and those were crazy nights. Those nights made me and my husband so desperate that having a 24 hour pharmacy at a walkable distance was our first prerogative while looking for a house.


Give me a sick child in the day – I can manage that but not in the night! But, I just cannot understand why is it that kids love to fall sick only in the late P.M. and early A.M. hours! So, the night monsters do crop up once in a while. To fight them, me and my husband keep the pediatrician’s number on speed dial and the car filled up with petrol always. I send up a special night prayer everyday to ward off these evil night monsters, cross my heart and go to bed. And when I wake up in the morning, I thank God for each peaceful night without the night monsters.