In three weeks, I’ve already failed at mothering several times. My mom says that’s why babies are born without mature brains... so they don’t remember the mistakes.
Please tell me you’ve made parenting/child-care-giving mistakes, because I need to know I’m not alone.
My latest blunder:
Driving home from Jamestown (home is a 45-minute drive) I was pushing the 4-hour limit allowed between feedings.
Infants need to eat round-the-clock and from what I hear, mine is even more forgiving than other wee ones. Some babies eat every two- or three hours, so basically, their mothers never wear shirts. Dislike. As long as my son has his pacifier though, he doesn’t mind stretching the limit a little bit. Never, never, never though, do I let him wait more than five hours, even if he sleeps through it.
With 10 minutes left in our drive, baby starts fussing. Within five minutes, he’s hollering. I tried to hold his binkie in his mouth, you know, driving with one hand, fishing for his pacifier and trying to pop it in his mouth behind me with the other... maybe add that to the list of mistakes too.
We pull up the to house where I have to at least put frozen groceries in the freezer. After a 45-minute drive, some of them will melt if I wait any longer.
So Mommy mistake No. 1: (please don’t judge me)
Leaving my screaming child in the car while the groceries caught air as I hurled them into my Maytag. I really hope Cole doesn’t remember the day I slammed the door on his starving belly. That image remains in my mind: him crying in my Jeep as I close the door and walk away...
Mommy mistake No. 2:
Changing clothes while... distracted. Ok, I really had to use the ladies room. Nursing takes 45 minutes, and after giving birth, my bladder CANNOT hold it anymore.
Sorry, TMI, but mothers out there understand.
Anyways, I basically prepared myself in a hurry, adjusting my new nursing top without removing my zip-up hoodie.
That leads me to mommy mistake No. 3: Nursing in a zip-up hoodie.
His tummy was empty, so he latched on and didn’t let go. After he’d guzzled his dinner, baby opened his baby blues and had a HUGE zipper indent over his right eye. I may have taken a photo had I not feared the scar was permanent.
The mark was gone before my husband returned home, but the scar on my heart is forever.
A nurse in the NICU said babies are resilient, and maybe he was right. I’m just not sure us parents are the same.
Funny stories, and I remember feeling those were big ones too, but you haven't seen anything yet (and I'm guessing I haven't really either)! The day we didn't notice his hand was bleeding until we saw the blood on the floor and wall was a big one... or this morning when I opened a drawer just as he came flying around the corner and smashed his head into it (that mark will last a while!)... you've got a lot to look forward to in the "bad mommy" moments, so don't get down on yourself yet! Wade and I like to refer to them as our "Parent of the Year" moments :)
ReplyDeleteI love the post. As Amanda said, there will be many more "parent of the year" moments including being the one on the bed the first time your child falls off of it, the first burn on their hand because you turned your back for a split second, long enough to reach up and try to touch the pizza, etc. There are so many others. Just remember, like your nurse said, kids are resilent. I have definitely learned that one. As you have more kids, you start to relax and realize your kids won't break!!! :)
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