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Adjusting.

Adjusting to the time difference was hard for anyone, let alone a 5-month-old who had only just started getting into a sleep routine. His usual bedtime of 7 pm at home was 7 am in Australia, he was all over the place and so was I. The flight was difficult, looking after a baby in a confined space for hours on end was stressful, but the pressure of having hundreds of people staring at you as you tried to settle a crying baby only made it worse. I thought that once we landed in Australia things would get easier, but I was wrong. Neither of us were sleeping that much and it was exhausting trying to keep Jordi as settled as possible, especially as he was going through a phase where he would cry whenever I was out of sight.

Ale had been busier than she expected.  She wasn't allowed to spend the night away from camp, so we could only see her during the day when they were given time off, which wasn't as much as I had expected. It was a couple of days after we had landed when we met up for the first time. We went for a walk along the local beach before stopping for a coffee and a bit of breakfast, she only had a few hours off as the first game was in a couple of days, so we wanted to make the most of it, deciding to meet up outside of camp meant that we wouldn't be interrupted by the other girls who were excited to see Jordi.

The hug that we shared when we reunited for the first time was the longest we had ever had. I'd missed her more than I'd expected, we had done longer stints apart when she was away at international camps, but that was before we had Jordi. Everything felt different since our little boy joined our family. I missed her more than I ever have, not only as my wife but as the other parent to our son too.

Jordi had been sleeping since we met up, he fell asleep almost as soon as I put him into his pram, he hadn't slept much last night due to the different time zones and was absolutely exhausted, so I was glad that he had finally settled, but I could tell Ale was getting frustrated. She kept looking over at him as he slept, her eyes lighting up every time he moved, hoping that it was him starting to stir awake and she could finally get some time with him.

"Can I wake him up? I need to go soon and I haven't seen him properly" she pouted, reaching over and stroking his face as he slept peacefully.

"No, please don't, he hardly slept at all last night... he's tired"

"He won't mind, will you buddy" She smiled, leaning over and unbuckling him before taking him into his arms.

He did mind though... and that was when the tears started and I became extremely irritated.

"Ale!?" I whisper-shouted, not wanting to make a scene or startle Jordi even more than he already was.

"Hey, it's ok. Mama's here" She spoke softly to Jordi, trying to get him to settle in her arms.

"I can't believe that you just did that!?"

"He can't sleep all day..." She said lightheartedly, not realizing how annoyed she had made me and how tired he actually was.

"He can when he isn't sleeping all night... it's midnight back home, he's tired and now he's going to be grumpy all afternoon so thanks for that"

"He'll be fine" She brushed me off as she put all of her attention onto Jordi who was screaming the cafe down causing my anxiety to skyrocket with what felt like hundreds of eyes all staring over at our table.

I stood up from my seat before this turned into a public argument "I'm going to get another coffee" I huffed, knowing that I would need it to get through the rest of the day.

Jordi was still unsettled when I returned to the table and that only made me more frustrated. I'd told Ale how he'd been struggling with the new time zone so that fact she woke him up even when I asked her not to drove me insane. She consistently tried to get Jordi to calm down, but I knew it wouldn't work, he was overtired and in a brand-new environment and all he wanted was to go back to sleep.