The creep of the crib

A warm feeling trickled down the back of his buttocks. He savored the new sensation and smiled. But as his back gets warmer, it didn't feel comfortable anymore, so he wailed. It began as a soft whimper, barely audible, but the cries progressively gets louder, almost like the siren of an emergency vehicle dashing nearer and nearer towards you. Within a minute, he felt manhandled by a pair of hands that is even bigger than his head. The cones and rods inside his eyes are still forming and he couldn't make out distant objects clearly, and yet nobody bothered to prescribe short sighted glasses for him. He only saw a blurry figure lifting him up, whispering a few indecipherable sounds as he got carried off. When he opened his eyes, he found himself in another place. The new sensation stopped his crying immediately as his mind whirred to take in the new sensory information. During this hiatus, he recognized that voice that is constantly whispering at him, and it immediately soothed him down. That same voice that accompanied him all the time while he was still in that warm comfortable darkness where everything was nice and good.


His felt his pants being pulled off, exposing his legs and lower body to the cooling air. Contrasted with the warm and sticky feeling at his buttocks, the whole situation just became even more unbearable for him. He wailed louder and more insistently this time, crying for someone, anyone, to make things whole and good again. He was so agitated that rivulets of tears streaked down his small face, soaking the pillow that his head was resting on. In between sobs, he felt something cool wiping past his buttocks and cleaning him up. Just like the dirt that was cleaned up, that initial discomfort that plagued him was wiped away little by little . Soon, he had long forgotten why his eyes were wet in the first place. Throughout all this ordeal, that soothing motherly voice was speaking to him, comforting him and letting him know that all will be okay. While he didn't understand the words, he giggled because he recognized that familiar voice. He let off a toothless grin and soon he heard a string of single syllable sounds that he will soon know as laughter. He cooed in a feeble attempt to mimic that sound, but of course, he failed, resulting in even more strings of single syllable sounds from the voice.


While he was paying all his attention to the voice, he didn't realize that his legs started to get all warm and cosy again as his pants were being put back on. He was scooped up by the powerful hands but soon he was wailing yet again. This time, it was that groaning feeling in his stomach that strikes every other 2 hours or so. It was agonizing and his entire world was about to crumble. It was so disconcerting that he had to try making that awful feeling go away by sucking on his tiny hands.


But the voice seems to know what is troubling him. He found that his head was being pressed into a warm, round and soft body with a protruding tip. It smells right and feels right. Acting on instincts, his mouth opened and he latched onto that warm body. A warm liquid filled his mouth and he drank it hungrily. After a few mouthfuls, his stomach felt better. He was cuddled close to a warm body while feeding, and the voice continued speaking softly to him, encouraging him. In the background, he could hear a faint 'lup-dup-lup-dup-lup-dup' emanating from the warm body. It was the same sound track, that reassuring organo-techno music that he heard when things were utopic. For that moment in time, everything felt right and proper, just like it was back then in that warm comfortable darkness before he was brought into this world.


With all his needs and wants satisfied, his eyelids relaxed and closed gently. His little hands, initially grasping his mother's clothing for dear life, were now relaxed. His body shuddered as he fell into slumber, as if an off button on a great machine that had been working overnight had been shut down temporarily for maintenance. Except for the soft rise and fall of his chest, his entire body was motionless and he is like a ragdoll - all soft and maneuverable. As his body rested, his mind wandered off to seek new adventures and sensations to experience, occasionally with arms flailing in the air in his baby dreams.


Rest well, my child, there is a lot more adventures waiting for you when you wake up.