My cracking knees gonna wake the baby

The baby's been a pretty good sleeper. For a baby. Still, when I put her down in her bassinet, I am always in terror that she'll wake up, because she does, at least fifty percent of the time. The other day I was lowering her into the bassinet, ever so gently, releasing one finger at a time, as if she were a bomb I was trying not to detonate which is precisely the case. I managed to transfer her to a surface apart from my chest and was just rising from my squatting position near her bassinet when my knee joints cracked.

It was a sound as thunderous to my ears as a fire engine roaring by.

i cursed my decrepit knees as I stood there frozen, waiting for the cry to emanate out of the bassinet.

When did I get so damn old that my freaking joints crackle like kindling in a fire?

And when did I get so crazy that I worry about this waking the baby?

This is my THIRD BABY. I am supposed to be chill and confident and GOOD at parenting by now.