Hail thy Central Park Queen!: Did we sign up for THIS?

At midnight on a weekday, Emmanuel will be rocking the baby and trying to put him to sleep while I am knocked out cold on the bed, all the way out to La-La-Land. After almost a 12-hour daytime shift of trying to pacify the fussy baby whose only interest are both my breasts and being able to fall asleep only in my arms(which means I basically CANNOT do anything else!!!), I can't help deserting my husband when night falls and leave all the babying to him.

Sometimes I threaten to donate Theoden to Salvation Army if he doesn't stop crying RIGHT NOW and for some reason, he seems to understand and quietens down. For 1 minute, that is. @#$?+!@#%&*!!

After a week of this fussiness happening on a very shockingly consistent basis, we of course became sleep-deprived and with our sanity hanging by a very thin thread, the question then pops into our head - DID WE SIGN UP FOR THIS?

DUHHH...

The scale of parenthood is a tough one to balance out. I really wonder how other couples manage with twin babies(not to mention triplets and more bundles of tiny horrors), or take care of 4-5 kids all at the same time without wanting to kill somebody at some point. Oh! Not to even mention the loss of our social life... What is the trick to all these surviving parents out there? There must be something rewarding about all these sacrifices, right...???

AND THEN...the lil' bugger starts to COO!!! Ah-hah! Finally!! My son can make noises other than crying his lungs out!!! These strange, new noises he makes are full of curiosity and the gurgles seem to be a rather intelligent conversation he is having with Mr. Giraffe and Little Yellow Ducky. It is one of those oh-so-cute moments you wish to savour before he learns to really start talking and demanding Cheerios for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

No amount of reading parenting books can prepare you for the full blast of it really. We must have read like 20 books and thought we were well informed and equipped for all to come. Oh no...haha... It is more like preparing for a tornado that is heading straight for your house...how prepared can you be?

Just yesterday, I got mastitis and it was a thoroughly unpleasant experience(ever had rock-hard/painful/swollen breasts before?) since the whole suite of flu symptoms came with it as well. *cough, sniff* Again, another one of those things we didn't sign up for but got it in the bonus package anyway.

I hope we will get another bonus soon - the gift of SLEEP. May my son sleep through the night from 10pm-7am soon....puh-lease...... THAT would be the ultimate bonus for both of us.