Tails of a Working Mom: December 2013

It’s been pretty cold outside the last couple weeks. I’m talking freeze-any-exposed-skin-in-a-second cold. For those who don’t know me very well, let me clue you in on a little fact: I am not really a fan of winter. The only thing that makes the winter season bearable to me is all the holidays. I LOVE Christmas! But the cold and snow? Not so much. I love to look at snow, but I HATE driving in it. And I hate being cooped up inside all the time since it doesn’t take much for me to come down with a bad case of cabin fever and get ants in my pants. So when winter rolls around, I panic a little as I look toward all those cold days (and inevitable sick days) ahead.

Another thing I hate about winter is bundling up. It’s hard enough for me to remember to put on my coat and gloves; it is even harder to get the kids ready to go. In summer we can just rush out the door in whatever we are wearing, but this is not the case in winter. Winter requires hats, gloves, boots, coats, blankets, etc. And with children, this can be quite a process.

Take Tuesday for instance. We are running a bit late for daycare and work and I manage to get Frog Face in his coat, carseat, and then covered with a blanket. After wrestling those stupid baby socks back on his feet (why won’t they ever stay on?!) I get Goober in her coat. She has this thing with her hat and mittens lately and LOVES to wear her hat and mittens, which for the most part is good. We head out the back door to our detached garage and I lock both the house and the garage behind me. I get both kids in the car and strapped in when I hear the dreaded “Mommy! My hat!”.

We had forgotten her hat.

Her coat has a nice warm hood but apparently this isn’t good enough. I am a bit flattered though because the hat she loves so much is one I crocheted for her. But we are already running late and all the doors are locked and we are strapped in the car. I’m not going to unstrap her, lug the huge baby car seat back into the house through the freezing cold just to get her cat. I explain in a calm and patient voice that we will get it tonight.

This apparently is not acceptable.

Goober turns on the drama queen switch and proceeds to cry the entire way to daycare. When we get to daycare, she refuses to get out of the car and I finally wrestle her out onto the sidewalk, where she stands and cries. I get Frog Face out of the car and try to head to the building only to discover that Goober has gone all limp noodle and refuses to walk herself. So I end up practically dragging her into the building since I can’t carry her because of Frog Face. We drop Frog Face off in his room (Goober crying the whole time) and I pull her down a side hallway to hold her and talk to her and try and calm her down. No luck. So we head to her room and I end up having to leave her crying in the teacher’s lap.

Not the best way to start my day.

But apparently after she had her little melt down she did wonderfully the rest of the day.

Did I mention I don’t like winter? Of course, if it was summer, instead of a hat it probably would have been her sunglasses or something like that. She is three after all.

It occurs to me that my mentioning Goober meltdowns may portray her as a bad child. She is actually an amazingly loving little girl whom I adore. But like all children she has her good days and bad days. Today was a good day. She ate her dinner well and we played happily until bedtime. Daddy was a kitty and mommy was a puppy and when we made our sad animal noises she would give us kisses to make us feel better. She didn’t fight bedtime either, unlike her brother who has been fighting sleep tooth and nail the last two weeks or so. But that is a story for another post. I am just grateful they both slept well enough tonight that mommy got a bubble bath and is now enjoying a cup of hot tea on this cold winter night.

Decorating our tree. Goober had a blast with it this year!

Frog Faced enjoyed the tree as well

She took her role of hanging ornaments very seriously

Goober thought all the decorations belonged in the same spot

So as I was showering last night lots of things were going through my mind. My shower time is usually the only time I will (sometimes) get 20 minutes to myself without distractions. I use this time to talk with God and think. As I washed my hair, I pulled out several more handfuls of hair and stuck it to the wall of the shower (it gets it off my hands and prevents it from going down the drain, then I just toss it in the trash when I get out of the shower) and thought about how much I missed my thick, shiny pregnancy hair. Then when I was just about ready to get out of the shower, I turned the water on scalding hot, like I always do, and just enjoyed the warmth. This made me grateful that I was no longer pregnant because hot showers and hot tubs are a no-no when growing a small human.

So I thought today I would write a bit about my likes/dislikes of pregnancy and the post pregnancy period. There was so much about the process that I did not realize when I went through it the first time, and so many moments I thought “I wish someone had told me that”. I realize my experiences may differ from others, but here goes anyways!

Pregnancy:

Like – feeling the baby move. Best part of being pregnant hands down.

Dislike – having to pee All. The. Time.

Dislike – not being able to get up. A couple times I literally got stuck while lying down and kind of flopped around like a beached whale until the Weatherman came to my rescue.

Like – hearing the heartbeat and ultrasounds. These never get old.

Ultrasound of Frog Face around 5 months

Dislike – oozing. Bloody noses, bleeding gums, snot, congestion, early colostrum, and discharge from other areas as well.

Like – seeing my belly get bigger.

Me around 39 weeks with Goober

Me on my due date with Frog Face

Dislike – maternity clothing. They never fit right or look right and those stretchy pants never stay up like they are supposed to.

Like – Phil. Phil is my body pillow who only ever comes out while I am pregnant. The Weatherman sometimes becomes jealous of Phil and the snuggles he receives.

Dislike – Lying only on my left side. I like to flop around a bit while sleeping, but you are only supposed to lie on your left side and if I did try to move from my left to my right, it was something like a 37 step process.

Like/dislike – pregnancy dreams. These are very weird. Sometime you dream about your baby which for me was often teeny like a doll or looked like a dog, or something else strange like that. Sometimes you dream about going back to work (or to the store, or to school…) and then suddenly realizing “oh crap! I had a baby! Where is the baby? How could I forget that I had a baby?”. And sometimes you have these amazingly hot dreams that remind you why you got into this whole baby mess/blessing in the first place.

Dislike – middle of the night leg cramps. Ouch.

Like – eating whatever I want. When else in your life can you eat anything you want and no one will say a thing about it because you are, after all, eating for two?

Dislike – all day sickness. It must have been a man who coined the term “morning sickness” because I experienced all-day sickness with both pregnancies. With Goober I had all day sickness for the first 14 weeks, and with Frog Face it finally began to fade around 21 weeks.

Dislike – increased sense of smell. This was usually one of the first indications that I was pregnant. Goober was still in diapers at the time so the poor Weatherman got doody diaper duty since the increase sense of smell along with morning sickness made diaper changes pretty unbearable.

Like – anticipation. I LOVED the anticipation of it all. The wondering “is it a boy or girl?” and “what’s he/she going to look like?” and “when am I going to go into labor?”.

Dislike – “did you have that baby yet”. This was especially trying when my due date with Frog Face came and went and many curious but well-meaning family, friends, and coworkers wanted daily updates on the baby front. Trust me, I wanted the child out too and I was trying everything I could to make the process go faster.

Like – attention. I admit I liked being the center of attention. Because after the baby came, no one noticed the poor mom anymore who had just squeezed a watermelon out of her nether regions.

Like – belly line. My reminder that I was pregnant that I got to carry around with me long after my baby was born which does eventually fade.

Dislike – stretch marks. The reminder that I was pregnant that I always get to carry around with me long after my baby was born which does NOT eventually fade.

Like/dislike – labor. Labor sucks, but the whole process never really bothered me too much. I like a good challenge so the prospect of a completely natural birth appealed to me. And I have a high pain tolerance so I think I handled it well. The sense of accomplishment after it was over was nice too. Oh yeah, and I got a baby out of the deal.

8cm dilated with Goober. Frog Face came way too fast so we didn't get a picture of me in labor with him

Post Pregnancy:

Like – eating whatever I want. Because I am still eating for two, I can eat pretty much anything I want and the baby gets the extra calories. Win/win!

Dislike – doughy belly. Right after the baby is born, I hate the way my belly feels like a deflated balloon, all mushy and gross.

Like – Hot showers. Oh how I love my scalding hot showers!

Dislike – oozing. Again, you seem to leak from everywhere after birth. I will spare you the details.

Like – lying on my back. Woohoo! I can roll over in bed again!

Dislike – hair loss. I just keep chanting to myself “I will not go bald! I will not go bald!” and hope that it’s true.

Dislike – passing out. Yep! Right after labor with Goober I wanted to eat something (I hadn’t eaten in like 12 hours) and I needed to clean up a bit so I attempted to walk to the bathroom. It was the first time I had stood up after I gave birth and thankfully they make a nurse go with you. Because I passed out on the toilet. Naked. Freaked the Weatherman out, but it is hilarious now! I almost passed out with Frog Face when I got up after birth, but since I was expecting it I was a bit more prepared and cautious.

Dislike – exhaustion of labor. You are bone tired after birth. And while you don’t notice it the first couple days because your adrenaline is still running, your entire body hurts because you used pretty much every muscle in your body from your eyes to your toes to squeeze that child out.

Like/dislike – hospital staff. They are great to help you with questions and reassure you that your baby (and yourself) are okay (“is this normal?” “Is this supposed to happen?” “why does my baby look like a purple cone-headed cheese-covered prune?”), but the fact that they come in every 2 hours while you are trying to rest (see the note above about exhaustion) is a bit annoying.

Dislike – first baby poop. Ew. That is all.

Dislike – poop blow outs. While always a possibility, diaper blow outs tend to happen more often when the baby is younger. Or when you are trying to squeeze their chunky butt into too-small diapers because you want to use them up before moving up to the next size (hey! Diapers are expensive!).

Dislike – lack of sleep. They will eventually sleep, and you will too, but my children are poor sleepers so I am constantly tired.

Like/dislike – learning to breast feed. I love to breast feed my children, but the learning part at the beginning can be difficult and painful. It’s worth it to stick it out though!

So there you have it! My likes and dislikes of having a baby. The list could go on, but it is already long enough. In fact, I had to go back and cut some stuff out because I felt it was getting a bit too long. Some people are hesitant to talk about this stuff, but I have discovered I have no shame. So feel free to ask me questions or comment with your own likes and dislikes!

And now for your viewing pleasure….