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By Meagan Ruffing
After trying for nearly two years to have our son Dylan, my husband and I were elated when he came into this world just two years ago. We had dreamt of the days when our family of two would someday become more than just a household filled with an Iowa boy and East Coast girl who had fallen in love at college.
We never knew how much one person could rock our world. My husband and I call it naïve bliss. This living, breathing, walking and talking toddler is now all-consuming in our already busy lives. We had absolutely no idea how hard it would be to care for another human being day and night.
When Dylan was three months old, we realized he had GERD (gastro esophageal reflux disease) or simply put, acid reflux. No wonder raising this baby was harder than we thought it would be! The constant crying, never-ending fussiness, and all night pacing with our precious newborn was, as my mom so kindly put it, “not normal.”
After months of trying to figure out what was making Dylan so uncomfortable, we finally got him on the right medicine with the help of our pediatrician. We made the transition from sleepless nights to longer periods of restfulness and traded in our crying fits (and I mean all of our crying fits) for giggling over burps and blown raspberries.
Having a slower start at establishing the recommended routine a newborn so desperately needs, the three of us got to know each other better than any of us had quite anticipated. Now two-years-later, my husband and I reminisce about the days we didn’t shower, brush our teeth or get out of our pjs. We look back at pictures of our first days home with Dylan and wonder, how did we ever get through it? We share stories and fill-in-the-blanks for each other when our memory fails, reliving foggier times.
My husband and I still use the term naïve bliss as an inside joke. Now pregnant with our third miracle, all we can do at this point is look at each other and laugh. Laugh that sleepless nights are on their way. Laugh that there is nothing we can do about it. And laugh that this is our life and we won’t know what it will look like until we get there.
Meagan Ruffing is a freelance writer and stay-at-home mom. She is now an avid coffee drinker – thanks to her many sleepless nights and two children.
