Babies Cry…and Other Obvious Truths Doctors Tell You

Posted on Dec 01, 2020 Topic : Men's Christian Living, Women's Christian Living
Posted by : Jeff Atwood

The moment of panic hit me about an hour before the moment we were supposed to leave with the hospital with our first daughter.

See, I didn’t want to leave. Because at the hospital, after the baby is born, you have 36 hours or so of amazingness. It’s like parenting Disneyworld. Trained professionals are available whenever you have a question. Food magically appears whether you order it or not. The room even magically gets cleaned.

Everything is perfect. Until it is not.

Until you reach “the moment” when it’s time to leave. The moment when they pat you on the head and scoot you out the door to a world and a reality for which you are not prepared.

Our firstborn daughter Madison was a great hospital baby. She ate, she slept, she ate, she slept. She was basically amazing and perfect. And then we got home.

The second we walked through the front door, and I MEAN THE VERY NANOSECOND we walked in the front door, she started screaming. Not crying. Screaming. Wailing. Howling at the moon. Except that it was just 11:30 in the morning.

And suddenly, because we were home, she wouldn’t do any of the things she did just an hour before at the hospital. She wouldn’t eat. She wouldn’t sleep. None of the magical hospital things were happening. All she would do is wail. Like I imagine a wolverine would wail. For hours. And hours. And hours.

So we walked with her. And talked to her. And sang to her. And tried to feed her. And change her. And go for a drive with her. And nothing worked. She just kept crying.

Then at about 4:30 pm, when we were just six hours into our home parenting and clearly total, complete failures as parents, we called the pediatrician. He had seen her just hours before when we left the magical hospital and so he asked a handful of doctorly questions about things that could possibly be wrong. The answer was always “no.”

Then he paused for a moment and said, “Well, sometimes baby’s cry. Have a good evening.”

Wait….

What…? Sometimes babies cry? That’s the best advice you have for us???? We’re gonna need a little more than that, Mr. Doctor Person.

And now fast forward through 24 years of parenting three daughters and I think we’ve learned just a little bit more about parenting. The important thing to remember is that you’ve just got to do your best, give and receive grace, and laugh hard at yourself when things don’t go the way you planned.