Zachary, Jacob and I visited my friend yesterday at the college where I worked for the last several years. For some reason, Zachary thought it was a doctor's office. We explained to him that it was a school and that Miss Gayle was a teacher there.
Knowing that Brian is also a college professor, Gayle asked Zachary what his daddy did, thinking it would help him to understand that we weren't at a doctor's office. Zachary surprised us, though, when he answered "he builds beds". We do have 7 children, so Brian has spent a fair bit of time putting together beds. He's put together basinets, cribs, bunk beds, futons, and doll beds...he has, in fact, built a couple of beds from scratch, including our bed and the captain's bed he built for Rebecca before bunk beds entered our lives.
For follow up, Gayle asked Zachary what his mommy did, and he replied that I am a nurse. I am indeed a nurse...I have been an RN for 20 years and although I am not currently working in the nursing profession, it indeed remains a large part of my identity. I was feeling kind of proud and smug that he knew my profession and not his dad's.
Today, I wanted to see if Zachary had a different answer for yesterday's questions. You know the 3-year-old's imagination: things can change rapidly. Well, his responses were the same...dad builds beds and mom is a nurse. I went one step further today, though, and asked what mom does as a nurse. I was thinking maybe he'd say "give shots" or "help people". Nope. You see, 3-year-olds view relationships through the filter of how they are affected or might benefit. Knowing that, it shouldn't have come as a surprise when he stated "you nurse babies". Yep, I do....I've been breastfeeding my babies for nearly as long as I have been an RN!
I am not nearly so smug as I was yesterday...but I am humbled and happy. What could be more pleasing than being recognized by your child for providing a safe and secure place to lay his head and the food he needs to live? That is our job, a job we lovingly and gratefully accepted when we said "yes" to God's call for becoming parents. There is no more important profession nor part of our identity, after all, than that of being parents, and I thank Zachary for reminding me of that so clearly!
Time to get back to "work"...I need to lie Jacob in his basinet so that I can prepare Zachary some lunch!
Showing posts with label motherhood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label motherhood. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Ahhh...the joys of motherhood
I love being a mother. Why else, of course, would I have become a "new mom" so many times? However, there are certain aspects of motherhood that no mom truly loves or takes much joy in.
There are, of course, the sleepless nights...my husband and I have spent a large number of nearly sleepless nights over the years. There are the newborn nights, the nightmares and the illnesses that all parents deal with. We are in the midst of another round of newborn nights, so if you see me napping in my van at school pickup time and most parents have picked their children up from the playground, please knock and wake me up. However, if you see me napping and the children are not yet released, please let me catch the next few blessed minutes of oblivion...they might be the only ones I'll see that day!
Another area of motherhood that I find little to no joy in revolves around the housework. Our house often looks as if a mini-cyclone has gone through. In truth, the cyclones in my home come in many sizes, starting about the time the children learned to crawl. Once upon a time, when there was only one sweet, cherubic child who was mobile, I thought this was easy to deal with...you just simply pick up the toys that are lying about the little love's room and toss them into the bucket in the corner and throw their cute little clothes into the wash. That method didn't bode well for us, I am afraid. As our family size has increased, the size of our home has decreased (surprises me, too). We have toys and clothes in every single area of our house and yard...and don't get me started on the shoes! I am definitely NOT attached to my children's belongings, and clearly they aren't, either, as they are all over my house. Now that I am a declared full-time homemaker, I hope to get a handle on this...if the sleepless nights allow.
The area of motherhood that I am particularly disenchanted with today are the changes that it causes in my body. Pregnancy necessitates changes and God has created a miracle in the maternal body's ability to provide a safe haven for the new baby, bring him forth into the outside world and nourish him for some time as an infant. It is a beautiful thing! What is not beautiful, however, is the weight that is surely still around from my first and subsequent pregnancies, the widened hips from expansion of the pelvis to birth our babies, abdominal muscles torn as the uterus demands more room, and all things associated with the recovery from childbirth (specifically c-section, in my case). The most annoying to me today, however, are the effects that my pregancy has had on other areas of the body, specifically my ankles. Many women experience swelling of their ankles, as did I, and are overjoyed when our ankles return to "normal", no longer resembling sausages in casings, and I was no exception. However, I have had an increase of ankle pain over the past 2 weeks, which I was associating with a fall back in March. At the time, the PA decided to treat my injury as a sprain, and to not x-ray because I was pregnant. Today, I visited the orthopedic doctor, who x-rayed both ankles. Fortunately, there was no sign of fracture and everything was normal "for someone my age". Unfortunately, the diagnosis was soft tissue inflammation of the synovial spaces due to pregnancy-related loosening of the joints. The prescribed treatment is ibuprofen around the clock and neoprene wrap, both of which I was already doing without a visit to the doctor.
The prognosis: the synovitis should clear up with or without treatment in a mere six to nine months! Maybe the sleepless nights due to a newborn will be gone by then as well...I'm not holding my breath for the chaos in the house to improve for a couple of decades, though!
There are, of course, the sleepless nights...my husband and I have spent a large number of nearly sleepless nights over the years. There are the newborn nights, the nightmares and the illnesses that all parents deal with. We are in the midst of another round of newborn nights, so if you see me napping in my van at school pickup time and most parents have picked their children up from the playground, please knock and wake me up. However, if you see me napping and the children are not yet released, please let me catch the next few blessed minutes of oblivion...they might be the only ones I'll see that day!
Another area of motherhood that I find little to no joy in revolves around the housework. Our house often looks as if a mini-cyclone has gone through. In truth, the cyclones in my home come in many sizes, starting about the time the children learned to crawl. Once upon a time, when there was only one sweet, cherubic child who was mobile, I thought this was easy to deal with...you just simply pick up the toys that are lying about the little love's room and toss them into the bucket in the corner and throw their cute little clothes into the wash. That method didn't bode well for us, I am afraid. As our family size has increased, the size of our home has decreased (surprises me, too). We have toys and clothes in every single area of our house and yard...and don't get me started on the shoes! I am definitely NOT attached to my children's belongings, and clearly they aren't, either, as they are all over my house. Now that I am a declared full-time homemaker, I hope to get a handle on this...if the sleepless nights allow.
The area of motherhood that I am particularly disenchanted with today are the changes that it causes in my body. Pregnancy necessitates changes and God has created a miracle in the maternal body's ability to provide a safe haven for the new baby, bring him forth into the outside world and nourish him for some time as an infant. It is a beautiful thing! What is not beautiful, however, is the weight that is surely still around from my first and subsequent pregnancies, the widened hips from expansion of the pelvis to birth our babies, abdominal muscles torn as the uterus demands more room, and all things associated with the recovery from childbirth (specifically c-section, in my case). The most annoying to me today, however, are the effects that my pregancy has had on other areas of the body, specifically my ankles. Many women experience swelling of their ankles, as did I, and are overjoyed when our ankles return to "normal", no longer resembling sausages in casings, and I was no exception. However, I have had an increase of ankle pain over the past 2 weeks, which I was associating with a fall back in March. At the time, the PA decided to treat my injury as a sprain, and to not x-ray because I was pregnant. Today, I visited the orthopedic doctor, who x-rayed both ankles. Fortunately, there was no sign of fracture and everything was normal "for someone my age". Unfortunately, the diagnosis was soft tissue inflammation of the synovial spaces due to pregnancy-related loosening of the joints. The prescribed treatment is ibuprofen around the clock and neoprene wrap, both of which I was already doing without a visit to the doctor.
The prognosis: the synovitis should clear up with or without treatment in a mere six to nine months! Maybe the sleepless nights due to a newborn will be gone by then as well...I'm not holding my breath for the chaos in the house to improve for a couple of decades, though!
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