Tape
Sam and Freddie were both peacefully sleeping in their bed, Freddie's arm draped around Sam's waist and Sam's hand on top of his. They were both deep in their slumber, letting the wonders of sleep take over their bodies as they drifted through their dreams…
Suddenly, the couple was jerked out of their restful sleep by a loud cry that emitted from the small baby monitor on Sam's bedside table.
"Nooo," Sam moaned, slowly turning over on her side to shake Freddie's shoulder. "Freddie…your turn."
"Sam, please, can't you take this shift?" Freddie begged. "I have work in morning."
"So do I, genius, my maternity leave's up."
"Oh…right," Freddie yawned as he sat up. "Fine, fine, I'll go get him."
"Good boy," Sam mumbled sleepily as she curled back up under the covers.
Freddie dragged his feet into his and Sam's newborn son's nursery. The four-month old infant was lying in his crib bawling his eyes out.
"Hey, Jason," Freddie smiled, scooping the baby out of the crib into his arms. "You need to be changed? Alright, daddy's got you."
Freddie stifled another yawn as he set Jason down on his changing table and quickly changed his diaper. Jason continued to cry the whole time and Freddie let out a soft sigh.
"You hungry?" Freddie asked, gently rubbing small circles on his son's back. "Come on, let's get you a bottle."
Freddie headed downstairs to the kitchen and opened the fridge, only to find that there was no prepared bottles. He supposed it slipped both his and Sam's mind; they were so tired lately it was a wonder they managed to remember their own names.
He closed the fridge and looked inside the pantry for more formula mixes, but it looked like they were out of that too.
"It's okay, it's okay," Freddie cooed Jason, gently bouncing the infant up and down in his arms. "You'll get fed, buddy. You really are your mom's son…"
Freddie went back upstairs, Jason still crying the whole way.
"Dude…not cool," Sam mumbled as she was awoken for the second time in ten minutes as Freddie walked into the bedroom. "I said it was your turn."
"He's hungry," Freddie told her, sitting down on the bed.
"So feed him."
"We're out of formula," Freddie replied. "He needs to be nursed."
"So nurse him."
"Sam…" Freddie sighed.
"Alright, fine, give him to me," Sam said as she sat up. "Hi sweetie…sorry daddy's being all nubby tonight."
"I'm not being nubby," Freddie said as Sam began to nurse their son. "I'm just tired."
"Really? Because I have no clue what that feels like," Sam smirked.
"You know," Freddie said as he rubbed his eyes. "I always knew being a parent wouldn't exactly do wonders for our sleep, but I didn't know we'd be this exhausted all the time. When's he supposed to start sleeping through the night again?"
"Around six months, according to the doctor," Sam said. "Okay…I think he's full. Now you can put him back in his crib and-"
Jason let out another loud cry, cutting his mother off.
"Jason, what's wrong? You just ate, you're supposed to fall back asleep," Sam sighed. "That's one on mommy's best skills!"
"I already changed him, so it's not that," Freddie said. "I don't know what's bothering him. I guess he's just being cranky."
"Come on, Jason, you need to go back to sleep so mommy and daddy can go back to sleep," Sam said, patting the infant's back. "It's two in the morning."
"I don't think he cares," Freddie said. "Maybe if we put him back in his crib with his special blankie he'll feel tired."
"Good idea," Sam said as she kicked back her covers. The couple went back into the nursery and Sam carefully laid Jason down in his crib, covering him with his favorite blanket.
Still, though, the cries did not stop.
"You think maybe he's sick or something?" Sam asked, surrendering to her son after five minutes and picking him back up.
"He doesn't have a fever," Freddie said, feeling Jason's forehead. "And his nose isn't running or anything. Here, let me check his diaper again."
Sam passed him Jason.
"Nope, he's still dry," Freddie said, defeated. "I don't know what else it could be. He just doesn't want to sleep."
"Give him twenty years, then he'll be begging," Sam mumbled darkly. "Hey! Didn't your mom bring over some old tape she used to play for you when you were a baby? She said it helped you fall asleep. We could play it for Jason!"
"Yeah, one problem, it's a tape," Freddie said. "We don't have a tape player. Our technology is actually from this century."
"We have an old one in the attic," Sam told him. "In that box of junk my mom bought us from some garage sale. Go get it!"
"I don't want to go into the attic!" Freddie frowned.
"Ugh! Why not?"
"There's spiders in there…"
"Do you want to listen to your son cry all night?" Sam snapped.
"No, but I-Fine!" Freddie conceded. "But you owe me for this!"
"We'll see," Sam smirked as she took Jason back from Freddie as he headed out of the room. She looked down at the small child in her arms. "Why don't you want to sleep, Jason? It's fun! This is the only part of your life where you're actually supposed to sleep all day long. Well, I guess you get to do that when you're like, ninety, but then you're all wrinkled…But you should take advantage of being a baby, you know, sweetie. You get to just-"
"Ahhh!" she suddenly heard her husband scream. A loud crash shortly followed.
"What happened?" Sam asked, rushing out into the hall, where Freddie was lying on the floor at the foot of the stairs that led to the attic, a box spilled out next to him.
"I saw a spider!" Freddie winced, slowly getting to his feet. "We need to call a bug guy…"
"Whimp," Sam chuckled, grabbing the tape player. "Where's that tape your mom brought over?"
"In my dresser drawer," Freddie replied. "Here, we can play it in our room."
The coupled retreated back to their bedroom and Sam set up the tape player while Freddie got out the old cassette.
"Alright Jason, this is the music grandma used to play daddy when he was a baby like you," Freddie said, inserting the tape in the player. "You'll see how relaxing and soothing it is and you'll fall asleep in no time."
Sam hit the play button and at once soft, calming classical music began to play.
"Your mom may be insane, but this music does seem like I would put anybody to sleep," Sam yawned, feeling her own eyelids grow heavy. She looked down at Jason, who was still fussing in her arm. "Or almost anyone…"
"Give it a few more minutes, he may take some time to get drowsy," Freddie said.
But nearly twenty minutes had passed and Jason was still very much awake and boisterous.
"I don't get it, why isn't he falling asleep?" Sam moaned. "Do you think he has diaper rash?"
"No, he was fine when I changed him," Freddie pointed out as he paused the tape. "Try nursing him again."
"I tried while the tape was playing and he's not hungry!" Sam replied. "I can't believe we have to be up in four hours and Jason's still not sleeping."
"Hey, Jason always falls asleep when we take him on car rides!" Freddie said. "Let's just put him in the car and drive around the block a few times and maybe that will calm him down."
"I'll try anything at this point," Sam sighed.
The couple threw on some shoes and descended downstairs. Freddie grabbed his car keys and led Sam and Jason out to the driveway.
After fastening Jason into his car seat, Sam slid into the passenger seat. "This better work…I don't have the energy to try anything else."
"Me neither," Freddie said as he backed out of the driveway. "Right now I just want to be in our warm bed."
Sam rested her head against the window, still hearing her son crying in the backseat. "Who knew a four-month old could cry for so long…He must have some amazing lungs."
"No kidding," Freddie said.
As the couple circled around the block, it seemed like this idea might just work. Jason's cries were slowly beginning to fade away, and by the time Freddie had finished his third trip around the block, Jason was fast asleep.
"Yes!" Freddie whispered as he pulled back into the Benson's driveway. "He's finally asleep!"
"We can get a whole three hours of sleep now," Sam said softly. "Man, I'm gonna wind up falling asleep my first day back at work."
The second Freddie took his key out of the car's ignition, though, Jason's eyes flew open and he began to scream again.
"You've got to be kidding me," Sam groaned. "We were so close!"
"Nothing's going to work," Freddie sighed. "He just doesn't want to sleep…ever!"
The couple brought Jason back into the house, collapsing onto the couch.
"Jason, are you mad at us or something?" Sam asked as Freddie tried to gently rock him in his arms. "We're sorry for whatever we did, just please go to sleep!"
"That's not gonna work," Freddie said heavily. "I think we're just gonna have to accept that we've become prisoners to an infant."
…
Sam slowly opened her eyes several hours later, not even remembering falling asleep. She looked over at Freddie, who was fast asleep on the couch next to her. She was surprised to see Jason asleep in his arms as well.
She took a moment to take in the sight of the two people she loved more than anyone looking so peaceful before her eyes drifted to the clock above the fireplace.
"Chiz! Freddie!" Sam exclaimed, shaking Freddie's shoulder as she gently took Jason from his arms. "It's almost eleven! We're late for work!"
"Oh no!" Freddie gasped, his eyes flying open. "We overslept? We overslept!"
"We need to go get ready really quick before we take Jason over to Spencer's for him to babysit," Sam said.
"Yeah…" Freddie nodded. "So we can go to work…"
The couple exchanged looks.
"You know…we could always play hookey," Sam said slowly. "I mean what's one more day of maternity leave?"
"I do have a lot of vacation days to use up…" Freddie said thoughtfully.
"Wanna go back to sleep?" Sam asked knowingly.
"Yes please."
