Pushing through the soft fuzz of the baby monitor, my daughter\u2019s cries jolts me awake: \u201cDaddy, daddy, daddy...\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019m up and across the hall before I have a chance to clear the mist from my head. Standing over her crib, I pat her back and tell her it\u2019s okay. Once she settles down I head back to bed. <\/p>\n
I make the mistake of checking the time. 5am. <\/p>\n
Just enough time to slip back to sleep before it\u2019s time to get ready for work.<\/p>\n
My wife curls around my back \u2014 familiar and comforting, this shape we make together.<\/p>\n
Just as I\u2019m drifting off, I hear my daughter again, fainter this time: \u201cDaddy, daddy, daddy...\u201d<\/p>\n
I raise my head and listen. <\/p>\n
Silence.<\/p>\n
Then, again: \u201cDaddy, daddy, daddy...\u201d<\/p>\n
I sit up, my wife asking me what\u2019s wrong.<\/p>\n
I can hear her calling faintly, as though from a distance . . . as though she\u2019s moving further away. <\/p>\n
\u201c<\/span>Daddy, daddy, daddy...\u201d<\/p>\n The light on the monitor is dim. No sound but the white noise buzz.<\/p>\n \u201cDaddy, daddy, daddy...\u201d<\/p>\n Faster now across the hall, at her crib in an instance.<\/p>\n She lies there asleep, content. Safe.<\/p>\n I sit on the edge of the bed, trying to ignore the faint cry that still pierces in the air, just barely audible.<\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>Daddy, daddy, daddy...\u201d<\/p>\n My wife asks me what\u2019s wrong. I shake my head, embarrassed and apologetic for disturbing her sleep. She puts up with so much of my insanity. Too much.<\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>Daddy, daddy, daddy...\u201d<\/p>\n I get up and go to the little window, just open a crack to let in the hint of spring.<\/p>\n Outside a bird calls, lonely in the early morning dark: \u201cDaddy, daddy, daddy...\u201d<\/p>\n I shake my head, kiss my wife, and head downstairs to get ready for work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pushing through the soft fuzz of the baby monitor, my daughter\u2019s cries jolts me awake: \u201cDaddy, daddy, daddy...\u201d I\u2019m up and across the hall before I have a chance to clear the mist from my head. Standing over her crib, I pat her back and tell her it\u2019s okay. Once she settles down I head [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[155,527,528,526,13,37,530,529,100],"class_list":["post-714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hallucinations","tag-baby","tag-baby-monitor","tag-bed","tag-birds","tag-early-morning","tag-panic","tag-safe","tag-sleeping","tag-wife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tmcamp.com\/yesod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tmcamp.com\/yesod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tmcamp.com\/yesod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tmcamp.com\/yesod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tmcamp.com\/yesod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tmcamp.com\/yesod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":715,"href":"https:\/\/www.tmcamp.com\/yesod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714\/revisions\/715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tmcamp.com\/yesod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tmcamp.com\/yesod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tmcamp.com\/yesod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}