Well here I sit at my laptop and resurrecting my series The Mama Confessionals. What is funny is that 8 hours earlier today I had decided it was time to do this. My plan had originally been to write about how horrific postpartum periods can be. I seriously feel like I am in junior high again, and really, who wants to relive that awkwardness. Lets just say that my washing machine has been doing double duty lately on my jeans and I am saying thank you for dark washed denim.
Additional Reading: I Locked My Kid in the Car & Opps..I Peed My Pants.
But instead of writing about all that, life decided get interesting last Tuesday evening around bath time and gave me some new material. Bath time is usually one of two things. A celebratory event that cultivates imagination and fun for 10-20 minutes before the full on bedtime routine starts or a rushed 5-10 minute wash up that usually ends in tears, most of the time it is the kids crying but sometimes I can feel like shedding a few tears myself. Kidding. Sorta. Not really.
So with three kiddos ages 5 years, 3 years and 9 months, I have the two older ones in the tub and little one in his Snuggle Bath Tub <—-Best baby tub EVER! I bathe the baby first and then get him dressed right outside the bathroom door so I can still see the older ones. My little guy had only napped for an hour because we were at Bible study this morning and had preschool drop-off/pickup.
He has been teething like crazy and chewing on everything. Even me. Nursing mama’s you know what I am talking about. Yikes and ouch. He was tired and upset while I was attempting to diaper him and get him dressed and I handed him a plastic comb. The comb or as it is referred to in the emergency room “foreign body” became a chew toy and the next thing I heard was a crack. I quickly removed the comb from his mouth and saw that a few plastic bristles were missing.
After sweeping his mouth and removing the bristles I saw that there was still another in his mouth. I couldn’t get it out and in between attempts he swallowed it.
Mommy guilt is real.
So there I stood. Naked crying baby in my arms and two other naked kids in the bathtub pondering what I should do next. I called Josh at work, trying to sound like I had it together, and explained what had happened.
In the span of 20 minutes, Caden and Maisie were out of the tub and in pajamas, Jesse was dressed, I had a bottle of milk pumped, and Josh was walking out the door with Jesse and taking him to the hospital.
A few hours later Jesse was home, sleeping in his crib, and Josh was back at work. The hospital staff didn’t seem overly concerned. Which was a relief. The x-ray didn’t show anything and so we were told to watch his poop and be on the lookout for any behavior that seems out the ordinary like, slobbering, painful cries, and also refusing to eat. Some of which is just typical behavior for a teething baby.
Less than 24 hours later we found ourselves trying to console Maisie after she fell off a toddler play structure face first at an indoor playground. First let me say that if you are a business owner who operates an indoor playground you might want to think about having mats or padding underneath your play equipment and secondly it would be so helpful if first aid kits were available to your staff members.
We were unable to see where the blood was coming from because their was so much blood in her mouth. The decision was made that getting everyone to the car would be our best option at this point. Caden wanted to stay and play and was upset that we were leaving and Jesse started to join in too. With three crying kids, we loaded up our family and were heading out the door as front desk staff tried to get us to fill out an incident report.
As politely as possible we declined and Maisie began demanding through tears that Josh fix her tooth and make it feel better. An urgent care and dentist visit later Maisie was on the road to healing with no permanent damage done to her face, tooth, or mouth.
All of this to say that there is never a dull 24 hours to motherhood. Each day is different even when it feels like you are doing it on repeat for the 100th time. Be thankful for those ordinary moments because seriously in a blink of an eye you might just find yourself being excited to go on a treasure hunt digging through poo.
