Genes vs. Reality
Timothy Speedle Jr was the first newborn baby his father ever held. Tim Sr didn't think he would take to help to looking after the newborn so easily. But he did. The pregnancy hadn't been planned but the two figured it was meant to be, especially if the baby were conceived during such a chaotic time. The new father began to think he'd never hear the end of him passing out three times during Lorelei's five hour labor, even though he stayed "at the north end" the whole time. He did cut the baby's umbilical cord however.
"With your job, how does that happen?" Horatio teased him.
Tim had been flabbergasted when he was told not only had Horatio stayed conscious the entire time his wife Aimee, was in labor with their now eighteen-month-old daughter Faith, but he put himself on the opposite end and actually delivered the baby girl. He knew Horatio was tough but didn't expect him to do that. And from then on, describe the experience as the "most beautiful thing in the world." Certainly for Tim, the birth of his son in itself was a beautiful occasion but he couldn't say that he would call having a front row seat of the actual process "beautiful." As happy as his arrival had made both his parents, Tim felt, and looked like a zombie when he arrived back at work two weeks later. From the first night they had the boy home he had awake every two hours on the button. And half of the time baby Timothy, known as "T.J.", his father's 'mini-me' refused to go back to sleep for at least two, sometimes three hours after.
Lorelei's planned exclusive year long breast-feeding plan went up in smoke the first twenty-four hours T.J. was home. Tim had called both Horatio and Eric countless times in the past two weeks exclaiming "he doesn't sleep!"
Horatio's immediate reply was "oh, he sleeps. Just not at the right time or for long enough." Yes, Horatio could definitely sympathize but for a moment wanted to enjoy Tim eat crow.
All during Lorelei's pregnancy, Tim had said according to their mothers both he and Lorelei had slept through the night (from ten p.m. to seven a.m.) from the day they came home from the hospital. He bragged with those genes, the baby would be giving them peaceful nights from the get-go.
"Really, Speed?" Fellow dad, Eric Delko had said, unbelieving. He was the father of six-month-old twins. "Sleep" and "newborn baby" didn't go in the same sentence.
Horatio had stifled a laugh, waiting for their buddy to continue.
"Yeah, double the genes. How could he not?" Tim said.
This time Horatio couldn't hold back his laughter.
"Speed. My wife likes more than anyone I know but when Faith was born we didn't see a full night sleep for six months!"
"You got two of 'em, Tell me what to do!" He begged Horatio.
Eric and Calleigh's twins were only sleeping through the night half the time. One-year-old Faith had been sleeping well since she was seven months of age. Thus, the reason he called Horatio, not Eric.
"Okay, " Horatio said. "Did you try swaddling him?"
"Try what?"
Horatio sighed, smiling.
"Swaddling. You get a receiving blanket, unfold it completely and lay the baby in the middle and wrap the baby up like a burrito. Helps babies feel secure for the first few weeks out of the womb. Youtube it. It'll show you how. It worked for my kids."
"Okay. What's it called again?"
Horatio shook his head.
Speed needed some sleep, definitely.