Rest from parenthood

It seemed that other than the weeks with the nurse, nothing was going as they had hoped. Even Nick's combining of classes and helping out at home didn't go as planned. He tried a practice run during his second week at home without the nurse and Nick noticed right away that he had trouble keeping focus with his lack of sleep due to the short and frequently interrupted nights. Especially when those kinds of nights had been going on for weeks on end. Adding to the current lack of sleep, was the onset of cramps in baby Sam. This was something that most babies suffer from due to their intestines adjusting to processing the intake of breastmilk and was now causing Sam to not sleep as much or as peacefully as he had hoped. With it being so hard, when he had plenty of opportunities to rest up when Elizabeth was watching the baby, he could only imagine how difficult it would be when he had to combine this with a regular schedule.

Especially with Elizabeth herself requiring a lot more assistance in these first few weeks than he had anticipated, things were becoming harder with each passing day for Nick. To top it all off, they were both being affected by them being left on their own with a fragile being like a newborn baby as it was causing them constant worries. They didn't understand how they had gotten to this point from their initial bliss. Everything seemed manageable during the first two weeks but things started going south the moment the first increase in the difficulty level came. This being the week after the help of the maternity nurse had reached its end. And now, with the end of Nick's paternity leave in sight, they were looking at another big jump in the difficulty level of this challenging experience. Being close to exhaustion and not having a solution in sight, the worry about how they would deal with all of this after his classes would start again became stronger. Especially how they would deal with it all after Elizabeth would pick up her schoolwork as well. These worries were added to the worries they already had as new parents, making them close to ropes end.

When George and Sophia made another visit to the couple and baby Sam on one of their days off, it became clear to them that the couple was in need of some help. The combination of sleep deprivation from the broken nights and the other responsibilities that came with being a parent and student, had made Nick and Elizabeth in dire need of some proper rest and relaxation. Primarily, they needed rest from parenthood, even though it had just started. The two of them could recall how tough those times had been for the two of them with Henry, despite Sophia having started college a year later. They could only imagine how tough it had been for the two of them. So, when Sophia went to the bathroom she sent out an S.O.S. in a separate group chat.

Luckily, Nick and Elizabeth had plenty of willing friends and family that were more than happy to take little Sam off their hands for a few hours and let them rest up. The only reason why they hadn't offered it up until now, was because they didn't want to get in the way of the new parents and their newborn. They were thinking that they must want to have some time alone with their newly formed family of three, before a third party came in to take one of them away. Now that it was clear they were needed, they didn't hesitate to jump at the opportunity. Giving the couple access to even more help than when the nurse was still with them.

With assistance being offered by so many people as to give them daily help for at least the next two months, they would be out of trouble. After that period the grandparents, great-grandparents and an occasional nanny would be plenty to get them through the trying times and reach the stage where their young one would at least sleep through most of the night. Two of the people who readily offered their help, were Jenny and Jason, who took the first shift. As they were expecting the arrival of their own little ray of sunshine any day now, they didn't mind a little practice run before they had to look after a newborn 24/7.

When the news reached the unsuspecting parents, they couldn't believe their eyes as they read the messages in the group chat they didn't know existed. They were both on the verge of cracking and Elizabeth, who was still quite hormonal, eventually couldn't hold back the tears that had started forming. The warm, salty drops started falling down her face as she covered her gaping mouth with one of her hands. Nick was equally surprised and thoroughly relieved. They didn't want to make their problems other people's burdens, causing them to hold back on asking for help already. Telling themselves that so many people had to do this parenting with less and managed to get it done. That if others could do it, then so could they. But now that help was being offered, even without them asking for it, they couldn't help feeling glad and relieved. Like that, with just two days of Nick's paternal leave remaining, a solution to most of their problems had arrived and was served to them on a silver platter, held up by the closest people in their lives.