Thursday, July 22, 2010

Chaos abounds...



We had a bit of a chaotic moment last night at the Rama household. Looking back, it was pretty entertaining, so I thought I'd share.

In general, Anjali has been a great baby. She is relatively easy to calm, and very rarely gets REALLY upset. However, she is just a baby and thus, she will occasionally have moments where she is upset even though nothing is obviously causing her pain or discomfort.

Last night was one of those moments.

I fed her around 6PM, and Amar got home around 6:30. Almost immediately after he got home, she got fussy. And not just "give me a pacifier" fussy - all out wailing and flailing.

Amar and I took turns trying to calm her over the next hour. And just to underscore how easy a baby she's been so far, she's never cried for more than 5 minutes at a time; we're usually able to calm her pretty quickly.

Last night, however, she would have none of that. We rocked her. We swaddled her. We unswaddled her. We put her on her back. We put her on her stomach. We bounced. We danced. We took her outside. We changed her diaper....you get the picture.

After about an hour, I decided to try to feed her a bit more. Amar and I headed to the nursery, and right as we were turning the corner in the hallway, we somehow knocked the carbon monoxide detector loose and it fell to the ground. As soon as it hit the floor, it started emitting the most horrible, shrill, loud and obnoxious sound known to man. I think essentially the entire block thought that our house was about to self-destruct.

So I'm trying to feed a screaming child. Amar is running around the house with a small white box that is making a horrific noise and is not able to turn it off (apparently when it fell, some part got lodged inside that prevented it from being shut off). He starts threatening to smash it with a hammer. I start laughing.

Then, somehow, the house alarm starts going off. Screaming baby. Screaming carbon monoxide alarm. Screaming house alarm.

It was pretty awesome to say the least.

Eventually, Amar got the house alarm off. Then he found a hammer and started to work on the carbon monoxide detector. The baby had stopped screaming so that she could eat a second meal. And after about 90 minutes of non-stop noise at our house, we were able to rest peacefully and have a conversation at a normal volume.

Good stuff indeed!

10 comments:

biomcgary said...

My favorite form of home improvement - smashing things to pieces with a hammer. Now, you just need an alarm system to protect you from your alarm systems. . .

McBean said...

Kim, I'm laughing out loud! Hilarious! Oh the drama. Sounds like a day in our lives. :-)

Danielle said...

I can totally picture this but would have paid good money to see a video! So sorry you guys had a rough night, but I'm so impressed that you were able to laugh at it … during the moment no less. Don't you just hate Murphy?

Danielle said...

P.S. LOVE this picture too. She is hilarious.

denisemayen said...

Oh my gosh...thank you for sharing this story! I'm so glad you were able to laugh at the irony. I hope your day today has been calmer (and quieter). I can't wait to see you and Anjali again!

p&k said...

When this post appeared in my blog feed, I assumed it was from my sister's blog--a routine post about her dog, Chaos.

But you were talking about true Chaos in all of it's glory. Wow. This is a story for the baby book!

Allison Bellomy said...

so glad you are already laughing through the crazy moments! I am sure there will be more in your future...but you are ready! super cute picture! :)

Janet Sue Graham said...

Thank you so much for sharing this story! What an adventure you 3 had...makes me laugh out loud! I am glad things settled down and I hope today was peaceful. I am glad you have a blog to remember these moments!

amusingt said...

a great adventure indeed! Yes, I love that wonderful face you have captured.

Amanda said...

That picture is cracking me up--an instant classic!

(That same thing's happened with our carbon monoxide detector, by the way.)