OK. Here I am - for tonight at least.
I'm feeling pretty good after this birth experience. It really has been something along the lines of: wake-up, feed the kids, go to Doctor's appointment, have baby, come home, put the kids to bed, go to sleep, wake up, feed the kids...
I've had lots of help of course. My husband got a good deal of time off after baby girl was born and he has been doing the motherlode of the work since she came crashing in. And he has been teaching me how to be a more patient Mom. I don't know what my kids will do when he goes back to work and they are left with the full time ogre again.
My mother-in-law is here for a couple of weeks too. She is a fantastic mother-in-law. She has gone about cooking dinners and watching children and insisting on me taking naps and improving my kitchen pan collection in a very thoughtful way. I'm so glad to have the help - even though I'm the worst help accepter on the planet.
And today marks the anniversary of my husband and I getting engaged. He told that story to the kids last night complete with him beating me in the 10k race we had done that morning, me forgetting to tell him we were going to a parade right after the race so he had no shorts to change out of his super-short running shorts (I've always admired his upper thigh anyway), and me asking him if he had asked my Dad if he could marry me before I told him yes, to which he replied that he had. And according to him I said, "What did he say?" And he told our kids that my Dad said, "She's 26 years old for Pete's sake! Take her off of my hands already!" The story had a lot of the revisionist's history to it, but made me smile just the same. I feel even luckier today than I did that July 3 to be invited into this tall, tale-teller's life.
Well time to go help a poor baby feel better, then try to sleep, then wake up, then feed the kids...
6 comments:
Aw, I loved hearing about the day you got engaged... and Dan's version of it got a good chuckle out of me. And, I'm so glad you have some good help and that you're being a good accepter of it. Take good care of yourself and give that newest little one of yours a soft little kiss on the bridge of her nose and tell her it's from me. I love you, Jess! I hope the coming weeks go smoothly for you!
I agree that you are the worst acceptor of help, so I am glad to hear your mother-in-law is doing such a great job of helping anyway! I love that I was also involved in a small way in your engagement story since I made the signs Dan used, and I am laughing about the short shorts. Funny guy!! You got a good one.
I should mention, though, that you are the best giver of help.
Dad has always wished that when Dan asked to marry you that he had said in a loud wisper, "Irene, Dan wants to marry Jessica. What shall I say"--it is our little joke.
JessicaP,
It's been a short while since I've been able to read your posts. Congratulations on your new baby! How wonderful! I too find it hard to be an accepter of help but love being a giver of help. Does that say something about me? Hmmm. Many happy wishes to you and your family.
Thanks everybody - I love hearing from all of you. I think the being a giver of help and not a great acceptor of help would be a great introspective, learn-about-myself kind of post. I might have to work on that.
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