Being a “Baby-Specialist” is a dirty job!
Being a “Baby-Specialist” is a dirty job, but somebody’s gotta do it! I remember how desperate I was to become pregnant with our first child after trying for almost a year with no success. Now a little over 2 years later and 2 kids later, I can look back and realize how naive I was about what being a Mommy entailed. This last week has reminded me of just how tough it can be to be a Mommy.
It started Thursday night (Friday morning)Â when I woke up to feed Hunter, our 2 week old, at 3 AM. As soon as Hunter had a clean diaper, had been fed and fallen back to sleep I heard our 18 month old crying in full force. The rest of the night went from getting one kid back to sleep and then hearing the other one waking up again. At about 9 AM I finally got them both to sleep at the same time and we all slept for about an hour and half. When we woke up I was really not feeling very well and it was more than just the lack of sleep. For the past few days, I had been worried that I was having some symptoms that I shouldn’t be since the birth of our little Hunter. Every night I was waking up in cold sweats and I had a fever. I found my hospital discharge form and read that if you experience chills or have a fever you need to contact your doctor. So, I decided I better call my doctor and see what he thought. I talked to a nurse and she told me that the on call doctor wanted to see me right away. This pushed the emotional/post-partum/sleep deprived me over the edge and I started crying and falling apart immediately at the thought of something being wrong with me. My wonderful husband came right home from work and took me to the doctor while my mom watched Lexi (we took Hunter with us). At the doctor we found out my uterus had an infection, lucky for me this could be treated with anti-biotics and pain pills. What a relief! The doctor assured me that I would be feeling much better in just a few days. Saturday actually was a pretty uneventful day… I mean sure my little guy sprayed me couple of times during diaper changes and I was sporting the spit up all down the front of my shirt look, but nothing too messy. Then came Sunday! My husband went hunting, so my little sister, Whitney, came over to spend the night (I say “little”, but she is really 21 years old). Whitney had Hunter all under control, so I took Lexi up to bed. She was in her crib and she would not stop crying. I sat in the rocking chair next to her trying to sing her to sleep, but she would not calm down. Finally, I figured I would have better luck trying to rock her to sleep. I picked her up and sat down in the rocker. About 10 seconds later Lexi was throwing up all over. This poor little girl was sick! Once she stopped I held her tight and surveyed the damage. Everything was covered with puke, the carpet, the walls, the chair, the basket full of blankets, the decorative pillows and anything else that was remotely close to us in the room. Lexi and I were both covered, I just picked her up and we both got right into the shower to clean up. After I had cleaned the two of us up it was on to the bedroom. I was still trying to get the smell out of her room the next day! The days following this have been full of the cutest little snoty nose to wipe and lots of messy exploding diapers to change. Poor little girl, I hate it when she is sick!
Anyway, I was talking to my sister the night Lexi threw up all over me. She was saying that it is really funny that so many women want to be Mommy’s so bad, because really it is a dirty job! Throwing up for 9 months of pregnancy, going through child birth, infections after child birth, poop, pee, lack of sleep, being puked on, and all that other stuff really isn’t very glamorous. Since my sister has yet to have kids I had to remind her that there is a lot of other stuff that makes all the dirty stuff worth it. Seeing my little Hunter’s first smiles this week and hearing my little Lexi call me “Princess Mommy” are just a few of the reason’s why I wouldn’t give up my “Dirty Job” for anything!
