Raising kids is a physical job. For example, what is it about babies insisting that you stand up while bouncing them? Mia woke up around 5 AM on Saturday morning and (a) insisted that I hold her the entire time and (b) refused to let me sit while doing so. I pleaded with her but she kept saying curtly, "No. No. No." When I tried to sneak a sit, she went bezerk. When I'd stand, she'd sniffle herself back to calm.
But it's not the lifting/bending/tickling that wears you out. It's the emotional energy that's demanded of you. Yesterday, in just one hour's time, we had to worry about (a) whether Hadley had too much rubbing alcohol on her umbilical cord after we had to clean a major blow-out (b) whether Mia had eaten unidentifiable berries from a tree in the backyard and (c) if Bri was going to be okay after falling off the swingset.
That was just in one hour.
And it's not that you're just surviving each incident and then moving on. Oh no. You analyze it for hours/days afterwards. Over and over in your head, you ask things like, "Was it my fault?" or "Could I have been paying better attention?" or "Does Hadley have my feet?"
Which would not be good. My feet are a major concern of many. My brother recently pleaded with me to treat them. He even mailed me some below the counter anti-fungal cream that he swears by. My friends from college still ask, "Deebs, how are your feet doing?"
Like I said, there is no shortage of things to worry over. No doubt - I'm going to become pyscho dad when my girls go to, say, their first prom. I'll freak out about their curfew, the young men that court them, their MENSA score, and whether my girls' heels or pumps disguise the fact that they have their old man's feet.
2 comments:
Haha! I've got three too, just not 18 mos. apart. None the less it's always fun to see someone experience the same stuff (X3)!
Answer to your question (standing vs. sitting) a difference in gravity and pressure on their little bods.
As for worrying about it being your fault? Of course it is, your their everything... but think of like an error in baseball, you have to move on quickly or you'll keep making errors!
Fun reading about your experiences!
Congrats by the way!
Dan there is no doubt you are getting the usual parenthood experience that many share. We all have our questions and self doubt. The difference is that your parenthood experience is being compressed into a shorter time with less time for recovery! Most people have at least a year or two between children!
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