Raising Elio is relatively easy because he readily adapts to different parental handling. But he tended to cry a lot. He cried hard, loudly and he was hard to soothe. He was also a cranky baby. It was hard to get him to fall asleep and stay asleep. When he woke up in the middle of the night, he had trouble going back to sleep. As time passed, he was learning to adapt to new situations if he was allowed to do that at his own pace. However, if pressured to do so, he fell back to his natural tendency to withdraw. When he cried incessantly, Satan had the urge to shout at him to stop. And when his difficult child yelled at him, it was natural that he wanted to yell back. Tough love parenting. But you could have often heard people who boast being raised by tough parents and turning out fine. By remaining calm, responsive and sensitive, it took a long time to get through to their child and the process was painstaking, but the reward of being good parents was tremendous. Satan probably had more sleep than Alpha. And he envied that. He had more work cut out for himself. Caring for Elio was exhausting and worrisome. But he was thrilled. His child actually had a better chance to succeed, only if Satan did his part in providing good parenting. But unlike Alpha, he showed a low level of emotional and autonomy support. It came as no surprise.

“I remember my dear mentor who gave birth to four children telling me that pregnancy was a blissful state for her and that, if she could, she would always be pregnant,” Alpha explained, as his husband looked at him with a stern expression on his face.

“Just so there isn’t one small problem: taking care of all those babies. Somehow, I was more worried about pregnancy and childbirth than the fact that you are taking care of a small creature,” Satan replied. “Really, a very small creature - even for me who am *a meter and a wild strawberry tall. A being for whom you are completely responsible and who is completely dependent on you.”

“Ha, how hard that can be!”

“You're home all day after all, it's not that bad.”

“I’ve always watched moms with that little bundle in the stroller, gleefully watching their baby as it sleeps”, responded Alpha.

“Everything looked so idyllic,” stated Satan.

“Is parenting really that idyllic?”

“Can something prepare us for parenthood?”

“Are advice of other parents useful?” asked Alpha.

“One of the worse tips I got before I gave birth was, "get a good night's sleep now, because you'll need it for later",” mumbled Satan.

“It would be great if we could store sleep, such as fat, and spend it in the days of scarcity.”

“But we can't.”

“If you’ve heard of that phrase “sleep like a baby,” then keep in mind that if someone sleeps like a baby, it means they wake up very often.” Alpha scrunched up his face and sneezed.

“Very often…,” whispered Satan.

“Eli eats at night - regularly, not like us.”

“He doesn't really know the difference between day and night, and over time I don't even notice it anymore.”

Alpha glanced at them and chuckled. “I can't tell you to prepare for not sleeping because there is no way for a person to prepare for it, but I can only say that it will pass.”

“He hopefully will learn the difference between day and night.” giggled Satan as he playfully ran his fingers through Alpha’s hair.

“And then you will be able to finally get some rest.”

Elio opened his eyes and fixed his gaze on them. Even though he was tired, he was able to smell Satan's chest, crawl up to them and grab his nipple. He raised his head to look at him.

“What if I don't love him right away?” joked Satan.

“It may be due to exhausting childbirth, stress or fatigue, but all these feelings and fears are only temporary,” smiled Alpha.