I'm "that" Mom

I was talking to my neighbor one day about the trials and tribulations of being a mom. She said that her sisters (all of whom have 4+ kids) never once told her how difficult it is to raise children. Maybe it's a "dirty" little secret that we keep to ourselves but the truth is - BEING A MOTHER IS FREAKING HARD! I use the word "freaking" because I have children and don't want them to think their mother is a potty mouth. :)

I had to go back to work when my son was about 5 1/2 weeks old. I say have to because my husband had three children with his first wife and we really wouldn't have been able to afford child support, plane tickets and summer daycare if I had taken three full months off for maternity leave. When I went back to work, I was 40 pounds heavier than I normally am, still healing from the delivery and dealing with an infant who was far from sleeping through the night. Needless to say - I was in no shape to spend every day surrounded by men who had stay at home wives and very little empathy for my situation.

It took my son almost six full months before he slept through the night and when people would ask me how I was holding it together, I would simply say "I cry in the bathroom at work." Seriously, I would take bathroom breaks to pee out 40 pounds of water and do a little crying at the same time.

When I decided to have a child, I was woefully unprepared for pregnancy, dealing with an infant and stepchildren while working and commuting. My mom died shortly after my sixth birthday so I grew never really knowing the female perspective on life. I had no idea that it was possible to get pregnant and spend 40 straight weeks vomiting all day - every day. I have IBS which only made things worse. There was one spectacular day where I was sitting on a restroom toilet while vomiting onto the bathroom floor. Then I cleaned up the mess and went back to work. Why? Because I'm part Irish and we're raised to suck it up and walk it off.  As if all the sickness wasn't bad enough, every time I went to the doctor's for a check up the scale rose in ridiculous increments. How was that possible when I would spend an entire day vomiting up one sandwich? DEHYDRATION. I retained 70lbs of water and had feet the size of Shrek's by the time I delivered. It took eleven long months and a bout of food poisoning to get all of that water out of my body.

So why write this blog? 1) It's cheaper than the therapy I don't really have time for and 2) Maybe someone out there will come across my rantings and take comfort in knowing they aren't alone.

One Quick Pregnancy Note:

If you are having the kind of pregnancy where you are sick all day long - I'm sorry! I took two different types of medication and was even given it through in IV and nothing made it any better. If you are like me, the only thing that helped was lying down on my left side.