After church on Sunday I stood in the lobby and rocked a two month old baby girl to sleep.
Just typing those words sends butterflies aflutter in my heart and makes my knees weak. I love babies!!
At times like these, I have to ignore the peaceful joy of sleeping infants and remind myself of the trenches of babydom. It is my only defense against full-blown baby fever.
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| How can I not miss this??? |
Listed below are ten things I do not miss about having a baby.
Maybe this will help all of you babyless baby-lovers out there to get through another day without a squishy-faced newborn to snuggle. And, maybe it will help you baby-mamas to know that some day, your season with babies will pass, and there will be reasons to be grateful that time marches on as babies grow up.
10. The aroma of spit up. The only thing worse than realizing your baby reeks of regurgitated milk is realizing you reek of regurgitated milk. I will never forget the day I realized that when your baby spits up in your hair you must take a full-blown shower to rid yourself of the odor. Ick. So gross.
9. Baby monitors. Baby monitors crackle and make weird noises all night long. Sometimes I would wake up and wonder if a tornado had struck the nursery. Other times I could hear my neighbors’ late night phone conversations through the monitor. Ours had a battery option and if they became unplugged for some reason they would go off like an alarm in the middle of the night!! Living without those things is true deliverance at its best.
8. Carrying a human in a car seat. Those baby carriers are awesome until the baby weighs more than fifteen pounds. After that, if the baby falls asleep in the car and you have to lug that carrier into a store, you can plan on making a stop at the chiropractor after your Target run.
7. Germs, the flu, people who sneeze on planes, older children with runny noses, the sound of a cough in a movie theater. Nothing says “panic” to a new mom like the possibility of a fever or the flu in a brand new baby. All it takes is one friend whose baby has had a spinal tap in the ER and you will never want to leave your house until your baby is old enough to have a dose of tylenol.
6. Being the primary food source for a human. There came a point with each of my babies that the sweetness of nursing disappeared and I felt like they saw a giant turkey leg every time they saw me. My life was not my own when I was nursing, and weaning is no picnic, so it was just all one big emotional conflict in my soul.
5. All the gear required. Every simple trip to the grocery required the utmost preparation and forethought. Diapers, wipes, bottles, nursing pads, extra change of clothes, nursing cover, pacifier, toys, baby food, spoon, stroller, and teething tablets: should you forget any of these items, it was certain that there would be some sort of humiliating experience the resulted from your forgetfulness.
4. Date nights with an infant in tow. Don’t get me wrong, we were always happy once we got to go out, even if it meant taking a little one with us. But date nights that don’t include changing a diaper in the backseat of your car are much more romantic.
3. All the parenting advice forced upon you. The world is apparently full of baby experts. You learn this when total strangers stop you in Costco and ask if your baby is sleeping through the night, if he is taking a bottle, or whether or not he sleeps in a crib or your bed. When you answer that, no, he wakes every four hours, he hates the bottle, and you stuck him in a crib the day he started snorting in his sleep like a little piggie, they explain everything you have done wrong and how to fix your life, you baby, and your marriage. It’s astounding how much everyone else knows about your life, really.
2. Sleep deprivation. Aside from a few select nights of my youth in which I chose to stay awake for hours and hours, I have never known exhaustion like I knew during the years we had infants. I can recall days that I scraped myself around the house out of sheer duty to my young offspring. It was painful to live like that. Sleep is awesome.
1. The way babies coo, wriggle, and cozy into the crook of your arm when you rock them… wait… Oh, man. I was sitting here thinking about babies and I forgot to think mean, spiteful things. Their cuteness and sugar sweetness took over my brain. Sigh.
Quick, someone call me and let me hear your baby scream in the background….
I love this. My brain is so full of pregnancy fog, though, that none of it seems too bad. 🙂
(oh, I turned up pregnant…due in March). 🙂
Congratulations, Brenna!!!!! March is a wonderful month to have a baby. My birthday is March 5, so you can plan on bearing an exceptional child in March, clearly. 😉
Love this Carrie! I laughed out loud!
Ok, Carrie… Did you write this for me?!? Lol! I still have baby fever…. 🙂
I have plenty of young ones screaming over here… Probably enough to send anyone into the "no baby zone" for ages… I am living all these things you have spoken of and for some really weird reason as mommies it the hardest days we will ever live and yet the most rewarding at the same time. It's hard to explain to someone who has not lived it. Carrie, you were so right. Ya hit it all right on the spot. At times I can't wait for these days to be over. Then there's also a part of my heart that knows it will all come to an end way too soon, and as a mama who longed for so many years to have children of my own and thought it would never happen, I can't help my self in feeling like I never want this to end…….It almost feels like paradise to me…. It's ok if you'll think I'm crazy, cause I probably am!!!
Wow Carrie I love this. I don't even have a significant other but when I hold a little baby the baby fever thoughts rush over me. I can get lost in the what ifs and the when God thoughts…lol. Thank you for the reminder that it's not all cuddles and coos. And really we all know God has his own plan despite our hormones and baby fevers. Thanks Carrie. Love you.