[UA] Why it's worth it to have children.

[Greg Stolze]

Thanks to the influence of my first son (who will be three at the end of
September) and my second son (who was born a month ago last Thursday) I am
once again experiencing truly eerie sleep-deprivation hallucinations.
Here's a description of last night's.

Daniel (that's the youngest) had been crying earlier, and to give his mom a
break I'd gotten up and spent maybe 15-20 minutes holding him and patting
him.  The patting seems to calm him down: It may be that he gets gas and
the gentle taps help break up painful bubbles into smaller ones.  Or maybe
it reminds him of the womb and how it felt when mama was walking.  Anyhow,
I'd done that, then brought him back to our bed and handed him off to my
wife for feeding.

I laid down beside them and... I guess I must have fallen asleep
unexpectedly fast and hard.  As with many such hallucinations, the
strangest part was that I felt no sense of being asleep: My mind felt clear
and sharp.  At least, as clear and sharp as it usually does.

I was lying there and assumed that the baby was lying between Martha and
me, where he often sleeps, and then I felt movement beneath my hand.
Specifically, I felt a squirming movement in the hand that I had stuffed
under my pillow.

I was pretty sure that my infant son hadn't gotten stuffed in my pillowcase
-- after all, he can't even crawl or roll over yet -- but the sensation
that I was touching his flailing, constrained arm was pretty convincing.

Let me stress again that I did not feel like I was asleep.  I opened my
eyes and, until I had gotten up and gone into the living room where Martha
was sitting on the couch with him, I was not satisfied that he was safe.

-G.



The Germans are to consonants what the Hawaiians are to vowels.
		-Garrison Keillor

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