Mommy of Many is Out of Practice!

I got the opportunity to have my newest goddaughter for the whole day, today.  Whoo Hoo!  I haven’t had a baby in the house in a while, so I jumped at the chance to cuddle this sweet little bundle.  I pulled up in front of her house, moved Gabi’s car seat to the second row of seats in the van, put Lauren’s seat in the first row next to Luke-Xavier and went in to grab the baby and all that she would need for a day away from her house.  Once I got her car seat locked in and her bag put in the back, we were ready to go.  I got into my seat and turned around to Luke-Xavier’s voice saying, “here”.  He was trying to give her a peanut!  All of a sudden I realized what I was up against!  I have 2 preschoolers at home, who have no idea about having a baby around.  They are both excited about the idea, but have never really been around babies.  Luke-Xavier has no concept of needing teeth to chew or that babies only drink bottles.  I’ve always taken for granted that my kids learned about babies as we went.  Wow!  I had to give a 3-minute talk on what babies could and couldn’t do, what the ate and how they slept, not to mention safety factors like, “you can not pick the baby up”.  So, we got home and unloaded.  

I am SO out of practice!  It’s not even just the baby stuff, like needing to entertain them or hold and burp them (love the holding part!), but it’s the fact that you have to spend so much energy keeping the other kids off the baby!  It’s the not being able to say, “mommy has to work for a few minutes, watch your movie”.  It’s not being able to go to the bathroom without the baby, for fear the well-meaning preschoolers will give her a toy that isn’t safe, drop something on her head, step on her or pick her up.  I DO remember that babies take a lot of time and energy, but it’s all the worry and equipment and guess work that I forgot about.  How? How did I possibly forget after doing this 9 times?  Well, all I can come up with is that all those years are such a blur.  They were a constant flow of movement and thought.  Yes, now I’m always Doing the Dance, but it’s so different!  I can take 5 minutes to myself when I need it.  I can schedule social engagements and count on the bigger kids to lend a hand.  

I wouldn’t trade all of those years, even if I could and I certainly wouldn’t change saying “yes” to today, but it flashed me back to things I’d forgotten and how much work and how different things were for so long!

Babies are one of the greatest gifts and joys that you can be given.  Luckily, all the work and energy that goes into them fades away into distant memories as life moves forward.

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Don’t forget to check back tomorrow for details on how you can be the next winner of a pair of tickets to the Shecky’s Girls Night Out, coming to San Diego May 14th! 

Have a great day~