This blog is a part of my project 365 series. Documenting life and sharing too much, every day, for 365 days. To see more CLICK HERE
The day is done and it's time for sleep. . . .
My 5 year old is arguing with me about cleaning up her art project mess. My 2.5 year old is throwing a tantrum in the hall and taking her pajamas off for the 2nd time tonight. My 7 month old refuses to let me remove my breast from his mouth so I can fully attend to either of his sisters. The dogs are running around the house like maniacs and my husband is at work.
I'm sitting in the chair nursing and rocking the baby, praying he actually falls asleep. I'm pretending my tea is wine while crossing my fingers to get a call that I have a mom in labor so I can phone the babysitter and ditch this disaster.
I nurse the baby to sleep. Swap my nipple out for a paci and pray he stays passed out. . Spoiler alert: He doesn't.
I set him down to play- he crys, obviously over tired. I try to nurse him back to sleep - he opts to do yoga while nursing instead. I give him his paci and set him in the pack and play in our room.
He starts to cry instantly.
I close the door and walk away.
I retrieve my tantruming two year old from the floor and put her pajamas back on. With her on my hip I go and help my 5 year old clean up her mess, which is somehow larger then when she started 'cleaning'.
The baby is still crying in my room.
I get the girls cups of water and tuck them in. Instead of reading a bedtime story I make up the most ridiculous/pathetic "story" about a princesses and aliens. The girls share a room so after 500 questions about the princess, and aliens, and why the sky is blue, the three of us argue in circles about leaving the bedroom door open or closed. We agree to leave it open. Then they argue about leaving the hall light on or off and what noise to put on the sound machine. In an attempt to not explode into crazy yelling mom I close the door and walk away. The 2 year old starts yelling again.
I go retrieve my crying baby from the pack and play in our room. He's been crying for more then ten minutes. I bring him to our bed and attempt to nurse him to sleep yet again. He stops crying as soon as he is latched. Down the hall I eventually silence from the girls room. YES! Two down one to go!
As I nurse he starts to fall asleep. I know if I dare get up now he will wake wake up, so I turn on my phone and mindlessly scroll through Facebook while he uses me as a human pacifier.
Oh fun- an article about how letting your baby cry it out is horrible and damaging to children. More fun is the moms who chime in under the comments: "How could a mother do that to their child!?" "I could NEVER let my baby cry like that!" "That should be considered child abuse!" "When my baby cries I ALWAYS help - it's just NATURAL - how could a mother ignore their crying child??".
Half asleep my son does one of those infamous post-cry hiccups as I read.
I type "Fuck You" in the comments. Thankfully my tea wasn't really wine and I delete my comment before I hit post.
These days when I see someone being all 'holier than thou' on social media I just assume they are drunk and don't mean to be so harsh. Heaven knows I have a hard time filtering myself and can be overly intense, so I can empathize.
Share issues you care about, absolutely, but make sure you're not being an ass while doing so. You're not going to accomplish anything positive by making people feel like crap.
