I read today on facebook of a couple that wrote a letter to their neighbours after they called the police on them in the middle of the night accusing them of child abuse.
The letter had a sarcastic tone to it which is understandable given these first time parents’ despair at their 2 month old baby’s cries due to colic and their utter astonishment of having the police knock on their door in the middle of the night.
But I can also understand the neighbours. When my son Mr A started having colic around the 2 months mark we were on holiday in Portugal and I had quite a few sleepless nights. It always started around 2 or 3 in the morning and lasted until about 6am at which point he would fall asleep, most likely from exhaustion. It was heartbreaking. The feeling of helplessness is overwhelming and there was a time that I wondered what people would think if they could hear his cries.
We were staying at my parents house which is a detached house but if we were back in the UK in our terraced house with paper thin walls I wouldn’t be surprised if a neighbour thought we were hurting our child. The cries were loud and uncontrollable, as you would expect to hear from a small baby in acute pain.
So when I read this article I could see both sides. The neighbours were acting out of concern for the wellbeing of the child and as a parent, I get that. Child abuse is a reality and it happens in the most inconspicuous settings.
The whole thing just brought back the memories of my son crying and me having very little sleep in those few weeks. Colic medication didn’t help much and the only thing I remember was useful was lying baby on my arm facing down (like a cat lying on a tree branch kind of thing) and massaging his tummy at the same time.
For all parents that are going through this right now, just know that there is light at the end of the tunnel and this too shall pass.
And if the police come knocking on your door, ask them to hold baby for a while so you can sleep for a bit š