52. COLIC

Even though we wished for Minx to stay with us for a month after her surgery, she insisted on staying home, next door. Well, we all were over at her place most of the time anyway, so it was not that much of a difference. Imo, who was now retired from school, helped Hyemi noona during the day. Fortunately, when the babies were born, Sehun had a few days of vacation remaining before his next semester began in medical school. It took only two nights at home for him to resemble a panda.

Once, Sehun’s college started, Puppy and I overrode all objections and brought two babies every night to sleep with us. The third slept with Hyemi noona. We made sure that each baby got its turn to sleep with their grandmother. Though the new parents did not say anything, their kisses to us were enough to let us know their heartfelt gratitude.  

We noticed that Joohyun was most like her father in her behavior. Even at a week old, she was the silent one and would only soft whines to let us know she was awake. The boys were like their mother, squalling through the night and not letting their sister also sleep.

At five weeks old, the babies were able to recognize our voices and touch. They had more than tripled their weight since birth and had begun to look their age. It was Joohyun and Taeyong’s turn to sleep with us that night. I sat Indian style on the bed, burping an almost asleep Joohyun after her late night feed at 2 am. Puppy was pacing our bedroom with a whimpering Taeyong in his arms who would give a loud cry every once in a while and startle his sister awake.

Taeyong was experiencing his first bout of colic and the pain had kept him awake till then. Puppy crooned to him as he walked to and fro trying to rock him to sleep. Even the colic pain medicine, that I had bought just to be prepared for such an emergency, failed to give relief to the little one.

“Yeobo, why is he in so much pain?” Puppy was desperate to comfort Taeyong as our hearts were pierced by his every sob.

“Minx began normal food a couple of days ago. She also was a colicky baby. He must have inherited it from her.” I kept my voice low and soothing, so as to not disturb Joohyun who had finally fallen asleep. I put her on the bed near the wall and stood up to extend my arms for Taeyong, hoping a change of arms would soothe him.

But nothing seemed to work for the little fellow. We sang to him, hugged and walked him, sat and rocked him, walked and bounced him, but the youngest of the triplets kept sobbing in pain with big tears rolling down his plump cheeks. I remembered the nights I had spent walking and rocking Minx in my arms when she suffered the same. I hesitated to use the only solution that had worked for her sometimes.

Puppy was panicking because he had never taken care of a colicky baby before. Making up my mind, I sat down on the bed and rested my back on the headboard. Putting Taeyong in my lap for a second, I removed my t-shirt. Before Puppy could say a word, I put my grandson to my and waited for him to stop his heartbreaking wails. He gave a few hiccupping sobs and then began ling earnestly. I gently wiped his eyes free of residual tears.

Puppy sat next to us and with the back of his forefinger caressed our gandson’s temple. We silently watched as the upset baby gradually calmed down and his eyes closed in sleep. When I tried to shift him away, he opened his eyes, gave a low whimper and began searching for my again. Puppy urged me to lie down in the middle of the bed with Taeyong next to his sister and let him le me to sleep.

Within five minutes our youngest grandchild was fast asleep. I carefully moved away from him and he slept on. Puppy sighed in relief and buried his face in between my shoulders. “Yeobo, it hurt to hear him cry like that,” Puppy whispered with a catch in his voice.

I turned around and wrapped Puppy in my arms, “My big baby.” I smiled and kissed his nose. Puppy was right. It hurt me as well to hear Taeyong cry non-stop for an hour.

“When will they begin sleeping the whole night? Thankfully we are used to lack of sleep. But, did you see the dark circles around Hyemi noona’s eyes?” Puppy kissed my neck and whispered, “Minx and Sehun are missing out on something beautiful. They should have waited another year for Sehun to finish his college.”

“Didn’t you know? Sehun told Chan Yeol that his burst,” I tried not to laugh at the memory of Chan Yeol’s expressions when he relayed that nugget of information to me.

“I didn’t need to know that yeobo,” Puppy bit my neck in protest and then whined, “What the heck were they doing for that to happen?”

I softly laughed at his reaction, “I will ask Sunshine tomorrow.”

“Don’t tease me yeobo. I don’t want to know. It’s my babygirl you are talking about,” I could feel Puppy pouting in annoyance. “Yeobo, I am now scarred for life.”

“Think of it this way, we got three little angels as a result. Be grateful that it happened now when they are old enough, not earlier or when they got married.” I lifted Puppy’s face and gently kissed him before winking, “And you got your wish.”

“Huh? What wish? I never wished for babygirl to have triplets.” My Puppy was adorably confused.

I took his hand and put it on my and waited for enlightment to dawn in his eyes. When he understood, his blush made me want to laugh loudly. “I love you so much jagi,” I couldn’t help kissing him again.

“Only half a wish,” he mumbled, quickly recovering himself. He looked into my eyes as he moved me to lie on my back and lightly pinched my . “It’s my turn now yeobo.”

We were thankful that the babies slept without waking till morning. They didn’t need to see what their grandfathers were up to for the rest of the night, not that they could have seen anything in the dark room. And even if they would have seen, at 39 days of age, they wouldn’t remember anything. Byong’s morning alarm was ringing when Puppy finally stopped and released my handcuffs. He kissed each of my wrists before pulling me off the bed so we could dress, and prepare breakfast and lunch.

We had half hour before the babies would wake up for the day. We asked Byong to dress in our room and keep an eye on the sleeping babies while we went down to the kitchen. With years of practice of working together, we had the food ready in no time. I packed the lunches and set the table as Puppy prepared the feeding bottles for the Joohyun and Taeyong.

We heard Sehun’s bike, and Puppy went to open the door with bottles in hand. Sehun was returning from his night shift in the hospital. I sat him down for food and Puppy went up to the babies. Byong would help him to change the babies and then they’d bring them down for feeding. Sehun and I talked about his hospital cases at night as he gulped down the food. We heard the trio before seeing them. The babies were crying for their milk and Puppy was trying to croon them into hushing up and letting their father eat in peace.

Sehun left his food and rushed to take his babies from Puppy. After kissing both of them, he handed Taeyong back to Puppy and sat down with Joohyun in his arms. He took one bottle and put it to her lips and then opened his own mouth to indicate I should feed him as usual. Once the babies and their father were fed, they burped. Sehun gave the loudest one. We told Sehun about Taeyong’s colic and then watched as father and son talked in croons and gurgles. Byong laughed as he sat down to eat and teased Sehun about his baby talk. Sehun took it in his stride and threw him the bike keys before leaving with both babies in his arms.

Another day in our lives had started off well.