When The Shoe Is On the Other Foot

Two days in a row? I'm on a roll. I am actually on my sofa relaxing for a bit, thankful to be feeling better. This morning Jason headed to work early, and when I got up, I was really uncomfortable. Yeah, yeah, I know that life at 30+ weeks preggo is not comfortable anyway,  but my belly and back were really hurting. It is funny that for over 9 years I gave women instructions on such things as postpartum care, newborn care, breastfeeding, etc. and occasionally what to look for with preterm labor (if I happened to be pulled to 3N with a discharged patient). Thankfully, that last one wasn't often. I remember being asked by my OB/GYN when I was pregnant with Jake if I had had any Braxton Hicks contractions. Ummm....I don't know. I don't think so. When my water randomly broke at almost 37 weeks with Jake, Jason asked me if I was having contractions. Ummm...maybe a little cramping? It was funny later when I thought about it because when the shoe is on the other foot, so to speak, it is a totally different scenario. You can give people information all day long, but until you are in the same position, you just don't know how it feels. I probably looked at some patients strangely over the years if they answered like that, and then I became "that person." Haha. I am still not sure if what I was having this morning were Braxton Hicks or if the little man was in a crazy position that was uncomfortable. What I do know is that I got the overwhelming urge the other day to get out the baby stuff, start sorting, organizing, and washing baby gear. The nest is not ready, and this one isn't finished "cooking", so he better just stay where he is.

It is crazy how much life changes with kiddos. Your focus completely changes. More often than not, your personal needs or wants get put on the back burner to take care of the little people in your life. I would like to say a prayer of thanks that my child could not have been sweeter this morning. He was an angel all morning, so while I contemplated whether or not to call the doctor (I didn't, by the way), he and I sat in the floor and played with trucks, blocks, his Little People Farm and just hung out. I say this because I was talking with a friend yesterday, and I wanted to clarify something from yesterday's post. I said I wanted to find a group of friends here who knew there was life outside of being a mom. What I meant by that was I wanted to find some girls who I had things in common with other than my children. And that when you hang out with these friends, your children may or may not be discussed. It's sort of like when I was a nurse and you went to dinner with co-workers. If the conversation turned to work, I tuned it out. Who wants to discuss work all the time when you aren't there? Likewise, if I have a free moment out of the house without my child, I don't want to talk about children while I am away. I do think that making friends gets much harder when you get older because it gets harder to meet people. Or if you do, it is because of the kiddos. Everyone I have met here has been wonderful, but everyone also has kids around the same age, so our schedules make it difficult to really hang out. That was what I meant by that. It certainly wasn't meant to sound like I never wanted to hear about anyone's kiddos or that I didn't want friends with kids.

And with that rambling complete, I think I am going to go take some Tylenol, chug some water, and lie down while the Jakeman naps. Hopefully, when Jason gets home, we can head to the park and let the wildman run around this afternoon.