Rebellious Child

Years from now, when Camille is a bratty teenager, her mother and I will probably give her lectures about not staying up too late and sleeping in all day.  "Well, if you didn't stay up all night, you'd be awake enough to for Church on Sunday" we'd tell her.  She'd probably roll away from us  in her bed and continue to sleep until we threaten to take away her 8.5G Iphone 17.

Rewind 16 or so years and we have Camille of today.  The bratty newborn who refuses to sleep, holds Mommy and Daddy's rest at ransom with her demands to be held and fed...  ALL NIGHT LONG.

Being the clever parents that we are, Bao and I have focused our efforts to keep Camille awake during the day with hopes that she will sleep better at night.  We'd bathe her.  We'd put her in a bouncy chair.  We'd try to keep her still in her bed (which she usually hates at night).  No good.  She's dead to the world.  We can pinch her cheeks, wave her arms, even lift her up by her armpits.  The girl just does not wake up during the day.  I suppose we could threaten to take away something from her; but when her only desires in life are to drink milk, get changed, sleep, and be held, we realize that we couldn't bring ourselves to take away a basic human right.  We're not North Koreans.

What we're going through is the hard lesson that there's no negotiating with a baby.  We are her slaves.  Her servant leaders.  We choose to sacrifice ourselves for her benefit, and still delight in all the nothing we get back from her.  I guess we have her teenage years to look forward to.  When we finally have some bargaining power.