Day 245: In the eye of the storm

There's a general misconception out there that babies are these sweet, innocent, generally incapable little things. I used to think that too. But my Mads has proven me wrong. She's a bit of a schemer. Exhibit A: She spent the last few days fooling me into thinking she'd suddenly changed her mind about going to sleep. Instead of screaming as soon as she hit the crib she just rolled over and chatted to herself, to her stuffed animal friends, happy as could be, until finally drifting peacefully off to sleep. She lulled me into a sense of complaceny, got me to the point where I was thinking, "Hey, this gig ain't so hard." Then, just when she saw I was at my most vulnerable and unprepared, she did an abrupt 180. I put her down for her nap yesterday, mentally preparing my mother-of-the-year acceptance speech, and much to my total shock she started screeching hysterically. For a minute I thought we might be under attack, she'd spotted a sniper on the roof or something. But no, she was just, shall we say, expressing her discontent. This went on for a good 25 minutes, at which point I went in and bounced her to sleep. Crisis averted... or so I thought. Or so she wanted me to think. As soon as her dimpled little bum hit the mattress she was up and screaming again. We went through this routine three times before she finally slept. We then repeated the entire thing for both of today's naps. She's a schemer, alright. Well, she may have won this battle, but not the war. Not yet, at least.

There are some lessons in motherhood I should know by now, and the biggest one is that just when you think you're starting to get the hang of it everything changes. My friend calls it the calm before the storm, those hours or days when you sit back and realize that things are running pretty smoothly - you and your baby are both dressed, calm, feeling relatively sane. During these times you may feel the urge to tell passing strangers what a good mom you are, to start penning a How-To guide to parenting. I'd hold off if I were you, though, because I can pretty much guarantee you that the storm is coming. Suddenly your perfect angel is howling, there's vomit in your hair, and you're still wearing yesterday's pyjamas. But, when you do find yourself in the eye of the storm, take comfort in the fact that just like everything else, this too shall pass.