Category: Being a Mom

The time change, y’all. A week of it getting dark at 5:30, and of Jonah getting up at 5:55 every morning has just about done me in.

I need some vitamin D, some xanax, and some baby Ambien.

Or to move to Hawaii, perhaps.

I’ve been in a funk for a week, and I just can’t shake it off. But birthsgivingmaspalooza in our family kicks off this week (Sophie will be SIX on Friday!!) and I’ve got to get my act together.

Can someone send the energy fairy to my door? The happy fairy? A meth dealer?

I’m pretty much down with whatever at this point.

 

You know what STRESSES ME OUT? Getting my big kids ready for school. We have a routine. It still makes me crazy. Bobby gets the kids up and gets them breakfast while I nurse Jonah who is incapable of sleeping in until I get the big kids ready, natch. Then, I come down and fuss at the big kids while they eat as s-l-o-w-l-y as possible and mess around (while Bobby is making school lunches). After I threaten them about 75 times, they finish eating and go to the restroom and begin getting dressed.

Which is about the time Jonah decided he needs to nurse again.

So while I shout drill sergeant commands at Sophie, who cannot seem to put her clothes on without being yelled at, I nurse the baby again. (YES, my life would be SO MUCH EASIER if I weaned him. But I haven’t had 10 days that I could let him scream at me non-stop. Which is what it took with Sophie. Lord help us all.)

I pry him off by the time it’s time to do her hair, and then he fusses at me and tries to push his sister off of me while I brush her hair and make her look like a living doll. Which is slightly difficult when a toddler is trying to push her away while I’m strategically placing hair bows and flower clips. But we suffer through it.

Then I send her off to  brush her teeth (Joshua’s already ready at this point, he generally has no problems once breakfast is over) and all of a sudden Jonah is happy again and goes and plays. Of course.

After all teeth are brushed, I coach the big kids through the CLEARLY arduous process of – gasp!- putting their coats and backpacks on!  And grabbing their lunch boxes!  It only takes about 27 minutes of nagging for this to occur.

Finally, Bobby appears, uniform on, and whisks them out the door to school.

And I resist the urge to go buy some xanax off the street and have a cup of coffee instead.

Tomorrow I think I’ll just stay in bed with Jonah and let them fend for themselves! I can’t stand being a drill sergeant all morning!

What’s your morning routine like? Tell me about it in the comments. Unless it’s all sunshine and roses and then I DON’T WANT TO HEAR IT!

I’m honored to have my friend Jen Curley guest post today about her daughter Emmaline Kate, who was born with Down syndrome. Like my friends Jessica and Paul, Jen and her husband Nathan didn’t know their daughter would be born with DS. Like Jess and Paul, they never imagined that they would go down this road. But now that they are over five years down it, Jen says, “The future is a good place to be. I definitely wish I wouldn’t have been so afraid of it when Emmy was born.”  Jen is a teacher by trade and currently homeschools Emmy and her siblings Jacob, almost 10, and Gabrielle, 8. (She is also my very favorite Usborne books consultant!) Her hubby Nathan serves our city as a police officer.

I was living my dream life, married to my kindergarten sweetheart, mother to our two perfect children and pregnant with another sweet baby.  How was I to know that on February 21^st, 2007, our lives would change in a way we never anticipated?  Labor and delivery were perfect and after just a few pushes, Emmaline Kate joined the world.  My doctor and all the nurses oohed and aahed over how perfect she was, but I could tell something was different from the moment I laid eyes on her.  A look flashed in her eyes, and at that moment, I noticed a resemblance to my niece, who has Down syndrome.  When Emmy was taken for her evaluation by the pediatrician and everyone else had left the room, I mentioned my concern to my husband.  While we were both suspicious, nothing could have prepared us for the bombshell we were about to receive from the pediatrician.

I don’t know that anyone is ever ready to hear the words “Down syndrome” in regards to their newborn baby.  Nor were we prepared to hear that our precious girl had a hole in her heart, along with several other health complications.  In the 30 years that I’ve known my husband, I can only count a handful of times that I have seen him cry.  After receiving Emmaline’s diagnosis of Down syndrome, we held each other and shed countless tears.   While we loved this sweet baby, we were also grieving the loss of the perfect child we had waited 9 months to meet.  The baby we had dreamed of was not the baby we got and honestly, we weren’t quite sure what to do with her.

The pain and grief we felt in those first few months of her life seem like a distant memory now.   I wish I could go back and tell myself that things would be okay.  I wish I could go back and tell myself that things will get easier.  I wish I could go back and tell myself that life resumes a new normal.  I wish I could go back and tell myself that my definition of perfect would change.

Emmaline is now an active 5-year old and in kindergarten.   She loves to play with play-doh and blocks.  Her creativity and problem-solving skills are amazing.  She loves to put on puppet shows.  She makes friends wherever she goes and is so sensitive to the feelings of others.   She is a heart-surgery survivor and one of the strongest people I know.

Who knew that someone so small could change my perspective on having the perfect life?  Emmy Kate filled a hole in our family we didn’t know existed.   She made us appreciate the little things in life and value what is really important.  She continues to bless our family each and every day.   I couldn’t say it five years ago, but I am amazed at God’s goodness in providing us with a child that had a little something extra.  It was just the something extra we needed to truly make our family perfect.

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Could you have loved that post any more? Thanks so much for sharing your girl with us, Jen! She’s such a rock star, and so are you!

Get your share on! It’s Down Syndrome awareness month – please share this post with a friend!