Downtown Idea

45. Sincerity is Scary

Brodie was a nightmare. He was the worst baby ever. Well. He was the best baby ever because he was my baby. But he was the worst.

He only slept for like an hour at a time and then he'd just scream for an hour and half for no reason. We tried everything to get him to stop. He wasn't hungry for a bottle or the boob. His diaper was clean. We tried checking for gas but he was fine. He just wanted to scream. I even called the doctor but he said he was fine and that it was normal.

He did this for two whole weeks. I was exhausted. I just wanted to sleep for longer than an hour at a time. I wanted to sleep kinda through the night. I wouldn't really even mind if I was having to get up every four hours. That would be so much better than this.

I called my mum and she wasn't any help. She just suggested everything I already tried. I called Bryanna - a fellow mum - but she didn't know either. I even called Zoe and she came over insisting he wanted cuddles but it definitely wasn't that.

I had four younger siblings, three of which I helped take care of as babies. None of them cried this much.

"I feel like I should know what he wants!" I whined to Calum over the phone. He was at his house probably just waking up from a full night's sleep. Stupid Calum...

"Maybe he just wants to be left alone." He suggested, sounding in fact like my phone call woke him up.

"No! He just screams more when I put him down." I whimpered, rocking Brodie in my arms while he wailed. I had tried everything when he woke up two hours ago. I had tried to feed him again about ten minutes ago and he wasn't hungry. "I'm so tired. I gonna lose it, Calum."

"Do you want me to come over?" He asked giggling at me. He thought my misery in trying to take care of our baby alone was amusing. Fuck him anyway.

"Not if you're just gonna laugh at me!" I growled, unwilling to put up with him being an asshole today.

"I wanna help, Babe." He said with a sigh. I hung up on him to try changing Brodie's diaper again. He wasn't even wet.

"What do you want?" I whined at him. He just cried back at me. I almost started crying. I had slept like four whole hours all night for the last week and a half. I really thought I was gonna lose my mind if this didn't stop.

When Calum showed up he found me lying on my bed with Brodie lying next to me just screaming his little lungs out. I gave up trying to cuddle him. He was gonna scream either way and I didn't want to hold him anymore.

Calum picked him right up and like Magic he stopped. I sat up quickly and my mouth dropped open. "What!" I gasped watching Brodie snuggle into his shoulder like he was never crying in the first place.

"He just wanted his dad." Calum said laughing. That was kinda cute.

"Well he didn't have to scream so much." I grumbled, turning over in my bed. "I'm going to sleep. Don't leave."

I heard him laugh but that was all before I was knocked out.

I didn't wake up again until I heard Brodie crying. I sat up and found it was dark out. I heard crickets outside and wondered how long I had actually been asleep.

Brodie was still crying.

I got up and went into the nursery. I hadn't ever put him in there to sleep before. Usually he slept in my room in a cute little bassinet my mum gave me. He was too small to sleep away from me. But when I went into his room he wasn't in there.