Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Nostalgia, part 2: My mom is awesome

For many reasons I don't have time to detail right now. But since we're talking about childbirth, I have to give a shout out to my mom. Now, I knew moms were supposed to help when a baby's born. At my grandma's funeral when I was 6 months pregnant, my mom talked about the things my grandma did for my mom each time she had a baby. So I had an idea of the gravy train I'd soon be riding.

My mom came in the day we got home from the hospital; she claims it was on Alaska airlines, but I still picture it as being a white stallion. We were tired and didn't have much in the way of groceries, so she and Dave walked around the corner to Quizno's and brought home dinner. As bedtime approached, she had me nurse Mabes and go right to sleep. Mom's orders. She took care of the diaper changes, burping, rocking, etc. During the night, she'd wake me every 3 hours to nurse, then I'd go back to sleep while she dealt with Mabes' day/night confusion. Every night for a week. In the morning, she'd handle the grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, etc., and I just had to enjoy it and nap when Mabes did. I felt bad about the lack of sleep my mom was getting, since I can function better than my mom and sister can with little sleep. She just brushed it off and said she needed to take advantage of every minute with her new granddaughter. When Mabes would have a particularly rough night, my mom wouldn't tell me. She'd just smile when I asked how the night was and respond, "Well, we got to know each other a little better."

I'm realizing how rare this is. We were talking to one couple with a son 4 months older than Mabes, and I mentioned that Mabes started sleeping better as soon as my mom left, and how I felt bad for my mom. The husband's jaw dropped and said, "Wow, your mom took some of the night shifts?" Um, yeah...she took all of them... Hormone's weren't the only reason I was a sobbing mess when she left.

So despite calling her insane in my last post, I really do have nothing but respect, admiration, and love for my Moom. Yay, Moomy!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very often, the people who are the most awesome are also the ones a bit insane. Moom is a nice balance of the two.

Anonymous said...

Ah, shucks, with all this love fest going on, you'd think it was close to Christmas. But I already told you what I was giving you!

Seriously, though, I just happen to have the most awesome children and am trying to keep up with them.

laura said...

Our Moomy is so cute.

zeeny said...

Wow...all the women in your family are beautiful!

zeeny said...

Okay...I have a random request! Do you mind sharing Dave's monkey bread recepie? I remember him making that for our apt at Belmont and it was sooo good! I was hoping to make it Christmas morning! Hope all is well and warm where you're at!