That day my sister called me early in the morning. She had only recently become a mom, was tired, sleep-deprived, and asked a favor \u2014 to watch the baby for a couple of hours while she got some rest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course, I agreed. My daughter and I adored her newborn little one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My six-year-old daughter was excited from the very beginning \u2014 she rocked the baby, stroked her head, sang lullabies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Everything was calm and even pleasant: a quiet day, children\u2019s laughter, the smell of milk and diapers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But after a few hours the baby woke up and began to cry loudly. I realized it was time to change the diaper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My daughter enthusiastically offered to help \u2014 she always wants to be \u201cgrown-up,\u201d especially when there\u2019s a baby around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I spread a clean diaper on the bed, carefully laid the baby on it, and unfastened the diaper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At that moment my daughter suddenly frowned, froze, and quietly asked, pointing her finger at my niece:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014 Mom\u2026 what is that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I looked where she was pointing \u2014 and inside me everything went cold from what I saw\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Continuation in the first comment\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n There were bluish-purple marks on the baby\u2019s tummy and legs. As if someone had squeezed or hit her very hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I froze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2014 Sweetheart\u2026 did\u2026 did you do this? \u2014 I barely managed to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2014 No, Mom, I only kissed her, \u2014 she answered with a trembling voice, already almost in tears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I felt a chill run down my spine. I immediately called my sister. When she answered, I told her what I had found. She was silent for a long time, and then suddenly said calmly:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2014 It was me\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n I didn\u2019t understand right away what she meant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2014 What \u2014 you?..<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2014 I did it\u2026 I just couldn\u2019t handle it. She cried all night. I didn\u2019t sleep, didn\u2019t eat\u2026 I didn\u2019t want to, I just snapped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I sat in silence, not knowing what to say. My chest tightened with pain and fear. In front of my eyes was her tired, exhausted smile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And I understood \u2014 my sister wasn\u2019t a monster. She was simply burned out, confused, and there was no one beside her who would notice in time how badly she was doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After that conversation, I started visiting her almost every day. I would take the baby to my place so she could sleep, go for a walk, just be a person, not a constantly anxious mother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes I remember that day and think how terrifyingly close she was to the edge. And how important it is that in such moments there is at least someone who can lend a shoulder in time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" That day my sister called me early in the morning. She had only recently become a mom, was tired, sleep-deprived, and asked a favor \u2014 to watch the baby for a couple of hours while she got some rest. Of course, I agreed. My daughter and I adored her newborn little one. My six-year-old daughter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1668,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/virli.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/virli.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/virli.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/virli.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/virli.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1667"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/virli.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1669,"href":"https:\/\/virli.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1667\/revisions\/1669"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/virli.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/virli.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/virli.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/virli.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}