When The Days Are Long, But The Years Are Short
“The days are long, but the years are short.” ― Gretchen Rubin, The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun
Though I am yet to read this bestseller, but I have often come across this quote. And I am sure you must have too [especially if you are on any kind of social media]. This quote comes back to me every now and then, when I realize how fast my son is growing up.
It wasn’t too long ago, he wasn’t even there in our lives, and look now, our whole lives revolve around this person. It is hard to believe sometimes that the star of our lives, little D, is already 2!
I remember his first month. Like most mommies, there were a few hiccups in breastfeeding. He could not latch properly and we had to use a shield. I used to cry every single time, convinced he would never be able to breastfeed properly and eventually I would not be able to feed him exclusively for the first six months. It seems such a long time ago and we laugh over it now. Well, laughing we were also over the little one’s burp issues [or the lack of them] which would give us sleepless nights. And those night time wakings! It felt like they would go on forever, and then one fine day, he just stopped waking up at night.
Sometimes when you have a little baby or a young child [may be even with older kids but I am yet to get there] life may seem overwhelming. Nights and days merge into one another, when you have to feed every 2 hours! When baby has sleep issues, the night may seem never-ending. The moment he starts moving around, even the most innocuous thing around the house looks like a potentially dangerous thing. In toddler-hood, his curiosity drives you up the wall. It is easy to get caught up in such difficult moments. Isn’t it? I always recall this conversation I had with a friend, when I asked her about the challenges of initial months [her daughter being older than my son by over a year]. She said, in retrospect she felt she could have reacted to situations in a better way. They [kids] were never going to be that young forever.
The other day I told my husband,“You know, in a couple of years, he [our son] wouldn’t even allow us to hug him tight and smother his face with kisses.” Little D needs to be held and walked around to sleep. It may seem quite a task when you are tired or sleepy or simply not upto it. But sometimes, I realize he isn’t going to sleep like this forever.
Let me cherish these moments when I can hug him tight and put him to sleep next to me. And therefore, I have not made a big deal about ‘sleeping on his own’ or ‘sleeping in his own bed’. Many times he sleeps on his own even now. And I know, in no time, our little baby would climb down from our bed and seek his own space. I am already feeling the jitters as his playschool days are fast approaching. When did he grow up so big!
Reema Sahay is a Stay-At-Home-Mom, Freelance Writer, Voracious Reader, Passionate Blogger, Social Media Enthusiast, Internet Junkie and Ex-Marketing Communication Professional. She spends her days running after her very curious toddler, ‘the star’, and catching up on books when he naps. She writes about charms and challenges of life at Pen Paper and shares her passion for books at Recommend Books. She sometimes feels that her 5.5 years stint in Marketing Communication was in another life
