Noises Everywhere

“Good night moon. Good night air. Good night noises everywhere.”

If only it were that simple. Having a baby is a magical, beautiful thing. Their cuteness is boundless and a new parent can spend hours on end staring into their baby’s eyes marveling at their perfection. But as much as you love your baby and as much as you treasure the time you spend with her, I can’t imagine any parent who doesn’t breathe a little sigh of relief when their baby is sleeping peacefully. Those precious moments when baby is sleeping and you can pee, brush your teeth, do laundry, or just sit and stare at the wall provide much needed rejuvenation. It takes a lot of energy to roll around on the floor, sing a million songs and play the same simple games over and over and over again.

So, you’ll understand why I’m a bit crazy about the naps. Baby T is a happy baby. She doesn’t cry very often and is generally a good-natured funny little girl. I like for her to stay that way. I like to respect her need to sleep and my need to stare at the wall. So why does the world want to screw with my peace? Why is it that as soon as I put her down for a nap, three ambulances and two fire trucks must drive by my window sirens wailing? Why does someone tie their dog up to a post outside my door while they go do their shopping? Their yippy, yapping dog who will bark incessantly until they return? Why do the hardwood floors outside her bedroom creak and squeak so loudly? I never noticed that we had the world’s loudest floor until she was born. How can we live in a home with such loud floors? Why are people having their roof re-shingled? Why so many nails? Why all the hammering, horn honking, dog-yapping, loud-laughing, chatting, music blaring, car alarm wailing, door slamming, phone ringing, interruptions? Why can’t everyone just shut up and let the baby sleep?!?!

I used to walk around the world oblivious to many of the noises that surrounded me. I’ll admit that I would get annoyed with loud talkers (as I’ve already discussed here) or with a noisy dog but for the most part, I just didn’t notice how loud the city is. It just was and I was a part of it. Now, whenever I hear a siren, or a particularly loud bang, I think that someone somewhere is trying to get their baby to sleep. So maybe the next time you are stuck on a busy street and someone is holding you up trying to parallel park, don’t honk your horn, don’t shout out the window. Just wait. Just be patient. Just be quiet.

Just. Don’t. Wake. The Baby.