Three. A system that will not stand down

A newborn recruits continuous threat monitoring. You listen for breathing. You check the blanket. Part of you is scanning even when you are asleep and even when someone else is holding the baby.

Running a threat detector without a break has a cost, and the cost is not paid in worry. It is paid in irritability, in sudden images of something terrible happening, and in an inability to switch off in the exact window where you could be resting.

That last one is the cruel part. The baby finally sleeps, and you lie there wide awake with the system still on.