What punctuation would you use after "meant"?

between "meant" and "I hear you" in here?
Other times, I simply stayed by your side while you cried, as I had done the first weeks at home, when you cried in the middle of the night. There I meant: I hear you, I’m with you.

Thank you.

 

There I meant I hear you, I am with you.
I would not put anything.

 

'there' makes no sense... what is it you are trying to say with that last sentence?

regardless, the 'I hear you, I am with you' part seems to need to be in " " and not be preceded by a colon, in any case...

 

There, I meant "I hear you, I’m with you."

 

But in a recent post I thought the consensus was that thoughts don't go in italics but also don't go in quotations.

It's true that a comma after the "there" makes it more readable.

Thanks.

 

Can you see that it is all thoughts, and there are no italics or quotation marks around the rest of it. However, the part in question is quoting your thoughts from an earlier time. There has to be some way of distinguishing between them or it is confusing.
I think also you meant 'Then' instead of 'There'.

 

'there' still makes no sense to me... don't you mean 'then'?