RP Log: Seamus and Lisa Characters: Seamus and Lisa Finnigan (and a bit of Nora Finnigan) Setting: The beach below their house in Ireland Summary: Lisa finally gets the drama queen to sleep and comes down to the beach for a little break. Rating: G
All Lisa wanted in the world was an hour of quiet that wasn't when she was sleeping. Teacake slept well enough during the night, but once she was awake it was as though she needed to scream in order to keep herself alive. It was as necessary to her as breathing - or so Lisa assumed since their baby was constantly doing it. She had even checked with the midwife that this was normal and she had assured her that Teacake is just a bit more vocal than Nora was and that it was nothing to worry about. Teacake just had a healthy set of lungs and wanted to show them off.
But, Lisa was about ready for show and tell to be done and over with. There was only so much bouncing and singing she could do before she snapped, but it seemed that just before she reached the point of insanity the cries would finally start to calm into hiccups as Teacake struggled to keep herself awake. And then the hiccups would turn into sniffles until finally she was asleep. It was the, when she was asleep, that Lisa realized that she really was a beautiful baby and that surge of love and pride made her forget about her annoyance and frustration.
And so, after a moment of just looking at her, Lisa leaned forward and carefully - so, so carefully - set Teacake down in her crib. Even then, she froze for a moment to make sure that her movements just meant that she was readjusting to get comfortable on the mattress, not that she was about to wake up and begin the cycle over again. And then, finally, she tiptoed out of the room, taking the monitor with her to find Seamus.
Seamus had taken a good many turns with little Teacake as well, trying to keep the burden of walking around and bouncing as evenly distributed as possible. For now, however, he was on Nora duty, keeping an eye on their older daughter as she scampered around the shoreline below the overlooking cliff their house sat upon. He'd brought a chair and a notebook down so he could sit and write while she entertained herself with digging a large pit in the sand. He wasn't sure why basically just digging a hole seemed to be so much fun, but as long as she was happy and not trying to climb anything Seamus wasn't going to critique her choice of activities.
It was a typical choice of afternoon play spots, so it didn't take Lisa too long to locate them there. Seamus looked up from his writing at the sound of the pop when she apparated down from the top of the cliff, giving her a small sympathetic smile. "So she finally crashed, eh?"
"Yes, thank Merlin," Lisa replied, falling into the sand in front of Seamus. She leaned back against his legs, her own coming up to her chest as she looked over at Nora. The baby monitor came to rest next to her and she had it turned up so loud that she swore she could hear Teacake's breathing over the ocean - but she knew that was just her imagination.
Glancing back at Seamus, she gave him a small smile. "Did you tell her she won't be able to dig to China yet?"
"And ruin her peaceful, non-dangerous, not-requiring-intervention-from-me fun? Not a chance," Seamus replied as he closed the notebook and put a cap on his quill. He might not be a parenting expert, but he'd learned a thing or two over the past few years. "Besides, from what I understand, her plan is that once she gets it shoulder deep on herself, she plans to start digging out the side and create a tunnel. The goal is to go up through the cliff straight through to the foyer so she doesn't have to wait for someone to apparate her down here anymore. Sounds like a worthy goal to me."
"Oh, I see," Lisa nodded, her smile brightening a bit as she looked over at Nora. It was at that moment that their daughter seemed to realize her mother was there, too, and she waved happily before bidding her to look at the hole she was digging. After calling back that she thought it was a beautiful hole, Lisa chuckled before turning her attention back to Seamus. "Next she'll want to dig a hole down to the park so she doesn't have to wait for us to play on the swings."
"Which I see no reason to discourage." Seamus leaned down to kiss the top of Lisa's head before sitting back up, content to just comb his fingers into her hair. "If our daughter has aspirations of civil engineering her way to independence, by all means let her try. As long as no one hooks 'er up with any dynamite, we should be fine."
"Here's hoping," Lisa replied, leaning her head back into his touch and letting her eyes flutter shut. She let out a content breath, happy for the opportunity to just sit for a few moments. "By the way," she murmured. "I've made an executive decision that it is your turn when she starts crying again. If you don't mind, of course."
"Fair's fair," he agreed, sighing quietly because of course they both knew that the crying would come again, and it wouldn't be long. "I feel like Nora tricked us. She was such a happy baby. Didn't like to sleep as much as this one, but she was happy. Our Teacake's like some little...Sid Vicious, Johnny Rotten, angry punk rock anarchist baby," Seamus concluded with a grimace. "You think she'll grow out of it, or should we just buy a drum set now?"
Lisa laughed, her hands idly playing with the sand around her and making tracks with her fingers. "I think we can hold out a little hope that she'll grow out of it. After all, she didn't come out with tattoos and piercings, so apparently it didn't get too deep into her core just yet."
"I just hope she gets over her massive need to yell soon," Seamus replied. "If I have to keep bouncing like this for the next year, I think I'll be ready to enter the Ministry Marathon next summer." The only thing they'd been able to find so far that would sometimes prevent crying was strong, constant motion. Rocking chairs, walking around and bouncing - Seamus had even strapped her to his back and taken her for a run, amazed to find her not screaming for a whole hour all together. The only problem with that, of course, was that it was getting to be more of a constant aerobic workout than either he or Lisa could handle.
"I have to say that it's been helpful in losing my pregnancy weight," Lisa replied, although she didn't sound incredibly excited about that. Not having to wear her maternity clothes was nice, but she was starting to wish she was shedding the pounds due to her yoga and pilates classes instead of all the bouncing. "Heidi had mentioned that once her daughter learned to talk and use her voice in ways other than yelling, she was a great deal quieter. Hopefully Teacake will give us the same treatment."
"Talking's a long ways out," Seamus reluctantly pointed out. "Though they say babies can manage basics of sign language around six months. Maybe we should test that this time around. That's still a ways out, but it's closer than talking."
"Or maybe she'll lose her voice," Lisa replied, obviously teasing as she shot a smile over her shoulder at him. Although, she wasn't sure if that would necessarily be a bad thing at this point. "No, I think it will get easier once she figures out different ways of communicating with us. Right now she's just still pissed that she's out in a world where it isn't always warm and people touch her all of the time."
"Think we should try taking her swimming?" Seamus joked. It was only partly a joke, though; at this point, he was willing to try anything that might get them a few minutes' respite. "Hell, get in a warm bath with her and shut off the lights. I'll give anything a shot."
"I wonder if we should think about getting her some toy that has more flashing lights or something like that," Lisa mused, pausing to chew lightly on her lower lip as she watched Nora run climb out of her hole and look at it appraisingly. "Something to put in her crib at night. Or even if we look for some music to play? I'm sure that someone out there has put together something to soothe a baby to sleep."
"Well, she sure as hell doesn't like children's music, that's certain," Seamus dryly replied. When Nora was a baby, she'd loved the usual sorts of children's songs. She'd listened to "Silly Songs from Serenia" a hundred thousand times with great joy - occasionally to the point that her parents thought one more playing of "The Puffskeins' March" was going to drive them completely out of their head. Nonetheless, it had kept her happy and giggling. Teacake had been thus far unimpressed.
"I guess it's just a matter of testing new variables, yeah?" he suggested. "Next round of crying, we'll keep trying different music. And tomorrow morning I'll go out looking for new toys - or you can, and I'll stay with the Siren."
"That sounds like a fantastic idea," Lisa agreed. "With our luck, she's going to end up being a baby that loves heavy metal. I honestly wouldn't be surprised." She was still thinking that a silencing charm would do the trick, but she also figured that probably fell somewhere within the realm of child abuse and she wasn't that awful. Instead, she thought that perhaps she could do a call to arms in the journals later to see if any of the other parents have suggestions with dealing with such a fussy baby.
"Right, so we can listen to them scream instead of her," Seamus dryly replied. "But hey - at least then I could quit feeling like a bad parent."
Intellectually, Seamus knew that some babies were just (as their midwife had phrased it) "high-needs" or (as his mother had put it) "really, really fussy" and that having one did not mean he was a lousy father. Having had such a crummy excuse for a father himself, though, Seamus tended to be very conscious of trying to do things right with his girls, and likely to take it more personally when it didn't work. It was a feeling that tended to strike a lot of parents of babies with difficult temperaments anyway: the sense that there should be something they could do about it, and that they should have figured it out by now.
"You're not a bad parent," Lisa replied automatically, turning her head to actually look up at Seamus. "You're not the one that was contemplating through her out the window."
She had raised an eyebrow and given him a small smirk to show that it wasn't something she was really contemplating, but she was sort of ashamed that the thought had even passed her mind in the first place. It had been worse at first and her midwife had given her a potion and mentioned postpartum depression, but Lisa hadn't brought it up since because, well, how embarrassing is that? That and she hadn't felt low since then.
"Don't worry yourself about it too much, though," Lisa tried to reply encouragingly, raising her eyebrows. "We'll figure it out. In a few months we'll look back at this time and, well...definitely not laugh, but something like that."
Seamus did chuckle at that a little bit, but not for long. "I just hate feeling like there's nothing I can do for her, you know?" he said quietly, watching Nora at her digging. When something was upsetting that one, he knew what to do. Teacake made him feel every bit as lost as he had in those first couple of days with Nora. "And while I haven't seriously considered throwing her out the window, there've certainly been a couple times when I wanted to just cover her mouth to muffle the screams. Or to just put a Silencing charm on her and let her wear herself out. It's tiring - and I know you're the last person I need to tell that, but there it is nonetheless."
Lisa reached up for Seamus's hand and brought it down to press her lips against his knuckles. "I know, sweetheart," she murmured. "It's hard. But, well, we'll figure it out." She knew that she had just said that, but she thought that it was important enough to repeat. "You're not a bad parent because you're human. In fact, I think you're a wonderful father and not just because I've seen you with our daughters. You care enough to stay up until all hours bouncing a baby and then spend your down time worrying about how to make her happy. That says a lot."
"Yeah, well...I've got a really good mum to do it with," Seamus said. He sat a little forward in the chair, reaching down to rub Lisa's shoulders. "That helps a lot. But you're right - we'll figure out something that works eventually. That, or we'll just be really, really happy when she learns to talk."
Sighing happily, Lisa nearly melted under his fingers. They didn't have enough moments like this anymore and it felt good to have the chance. It also reminded her that they had gotten through this once before and with a little work and patience they would get through it this time as well.
"Wouldn't it be funny if she ends up being a really quiet child?" she asked, smiling to herself as she thought about it. "Or she ends up being shy?"
"If the two of us manage to have a shy child, I'll be impressed," Seamus chuckled. "But I reckon anything's possible."