Matt

THE BABY BLUES

Because I had to catch the next flight to Colorado, I hurriedly began packing my bags, taking all the important stuff I needed because I knew I’d be staying with my family for the next two months.

In no time, I arrived my destination.

I called dad to come pick me up from the airport and In about ten minutes he was at the airport.

As we drove home, we began conversing.

I had missed my dad so much, and my mum as well. I told him how college was for me when he asked to make sure I was doing just fine in school.

The moment I stepped into the living room I spotted the cot in which Matt was.

With so much excitement I walked over to where the cot was situated.

He was so innocent-looking, such a cute bouncing baby boy. My face beamed with so much delight as I lifted him from the cot.

While Mum was sitting on the sofa, dad stood at the door.

They both were keenly watching everything that was happening. It was such a priceless moment for the family.

I finally had a brother. Matt was looking at me all through, and when I smiled at him, he returned the smile. It was beautiful.

After gently lowering the baby back into the cot I gave mum a nice warm hug.

I hadn’t seen her for a some months now and because of school, I wasn’t able to stay with her and care for her while she was pregnant.

I took my luggage to my room and after having a shower, I went back to the living room to keep my mum company.

Dad had to return to work. He had excused himself from work so he could come pick me from the airport.

Mum was on a maternity leave. She would be off work for about 6 months so she could nurse her new-born baby.

We began our usual chit-chats and I began telling her how much I had missed her and dad.

Next, I told her about my experiences as a freshman in Trentwood university.

I even told her about Prof. McGee, the lecturer I hated the most and divulged some of the regrettable  encounters I had with the man.

They were quite funny so she chuckled as I narrated everything to her.

After laughing she still gave me a piece of advice.

‘You have to learn to tolerate people and have great respect for them as well.

...Many people would pick on you, get you pissed off and might not be at their best behaviour towards you but you have to be sure you don’t do anything rash in your reactions.

You may not even need to react all the time.’ These were her words to me. I nodded.

“Well Mum it’s never going to be easy,” I replied and she said that it obviously won’t but asked me to think about the possible grave consequences I would face if I did anything rash and unbecoming.

We spoke about a lot and she even narrated to me some of the hitches she faced during her ante-natal stages and we were grateful to God that there weren’t any complications during childbirth.

While we chatted, Matt began to cry. I quickly carried him out of the couch and brought him to my mum.

“He’s probably hungry, she said” and began breastfeeding him, then he stopped crying.

After a while I retired to my room so I could take a nap but I spent some minutes with my phone and it occurred to me that I hadn’t broken the good news to Tony.

We had not spoken with each other for the past one week because he was still writing his exams so he was off social media for a while.

I called him immediately. “Guess what, Tony.” Giggling in his usual fashion, he replied, ‘what?’

I insisted on him guessing and after several wrong guesses of his, I told him that I now had a brother.

‘Finally!’ he screamed out of excitement. He was so happy for me because he knew how badly I wanted a sibling.

When he was done congratulating me, we spoke a little more about his exams and a couple of other stuff and it didn’t come to our notice that we had been on the phone for almost an hour.

We were on the call until he asked to go so he could continue reading for the test he was to sit for, the next day.

Some days after I came home, my Mum began to experience baby blues and I was quite worried during that period. Dad was also worried.

She would be happy this minute then very sad the next.

Dad would tell me how she’d wake up in the middle of the night and cry uncontrollably for no reason.

She couldn’t explain the reasons for her mood swings herself so when we couldn’t take it anymore we took her to the hospital and narrated the situation to the doctor.

He said he would have concluded that she was suffering from Post Partum Depression but that based upon our narrative, her condition was less severe than PPD.

He then recommended Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for her which would involve examining and changing negative behaviours.

Mum’s condition wasn’t a critical one but it dampened the joy we all shared following Matt’s advent.

It made us worried because we couldn’t say we were fine if Mum wasn’t fine.

The issue persisted for some days and became even worse. This increased our tension levels.

During that time we had to pay a lot of attention to her and the bulk of the work was on me because dad had to be at work everyday.

We visited the hospital occasionally for the therapy sessions and to see the physician as well.

He always reassured us that in a couple of days mum would be just fine and it gave us some degree of relief.

All We wanted was for Mum’s unprecedented predicament to come to an end. In a few days time Mum’s mental health and behaviour was restored to normal, but there was a problem.