Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Having a Baby: Pros and Cons

Well, this.has.been.a.week.for.the.record.books.

Robby has had a cold for about 14 days now. We thought he was on the upswing until Sunday night when he screamed bloody murder for three hours straight. We were at a total loss for what to do and assumed something must be really wrong. To the urgent care center we went at 2 am. Diagnosed with ear infection. Got antibiotics. No one slept a wink that night, or much at all the week leading up to this.

Enter Monday afternoon. Reinforcements are on the way. Marmi is coming to the rescue. About 30 minutes before she arrived, I start vomiting. Which if you read my blog, you know this is totally not ok at all ever. Hmm. First thought is that this is from sleep deprivation going on two weeks now. But the vomiting continues. Stomach bug strikes the Lombardi house. Enter Tuesday. Andy now has the bug too. Yet we are also all still recovering from a terrible cold. At the same time as the stomach bug. A series of events followed that can only be described as hell on Earth, or the makings of a Saturday Night Live skit. Baby has been awake every night for multiple hours. What happened to my good sleeper? I have now cleaned Robby's sh*t off of his favorite bouncer, the changing table, about four of his outfits, and the couch in our living room. The couch. #gross Not sure if this is him getting the stomach bug or a reaction to antibiotics. He also peed in Marmi's face multiple times and let's just say he isn't good at taking medication from a syringe. I feel like I have a newborn again. Leading me to my list of baby pros and cons.

This pic is from our family photo session with Sabrina Gebhardt (she takes amazing photos-check her out!) on Sunday, the day before the sh*t hit the fan. No wonder R didn't want to smile much.....he was on his way to being so sick. :(

Having a baby is the most fun ever! Except for the times that are the opposite of the most fun ever. I've been keeping a record of pros and cons in case baby fever strikes and I need a reality check. Although after this week I don't believe I'll be getting baby fever any time soon.

PRO: You can throw away your alarm clock. Or keep it, but never have to set it again. Yay! Kidding.
CON: Sleeping in is over. I don't even remember the last time I woke up and the first number on the clock was greater than a 7. And that's if its a good day. Most days the first number starts with a 6......and the past few weeks its been a 5. Sometimes things get crazy and you are looking at the clock from 2 am to 4 am. Thanks, baby cough and cold. Followed by ear infection. Followed by stomach bug. Are you there, God? It's me, Adrienne. Unless your spouse is willing to go in on taking turns snoozing late on Saturdays, you can kiss those days goodbye. I'm lucky and Andy lets me sleep in some Saturdays. (*He is actually the most giving, fun, thoughtful husband and dad! He changes diapers. He gets up early. He deals with cry-fests. He picks up bagels for breakfast and does laundry. Now that's hot.) But it takes planning. And you have to take your turns getting up early too or no one will want to return the favor. I'm still learning to be less selfish.

PRO: You become a planner and think about things ahead of time.
CON: Spontaneity is gone. Mostly. There's always that time you planned on the usual one-hour nap but were thrown for a loop when nap time was cut short by 30-minutes. Spontaneity at its best!

PRO: You are at home more often, so you can spend lots of time scoping out new vacation spots. Online, of course.
CON: You better hope you have someone calling you up to volunteer to keep baby overnight or you won't be vacationing anywhere. Heck, I'll even take someone calling and volunteering to keep my child for a few hours so we can have date nights. We have been lucky in the "keep my baby overnight so I can vacation" regard thanks to Marmi and Opa volunteering to keep R for a 5 night stint back in July. We are hoping to get away for a weekend again sometime soon! Hint, hint, hint...anyone?..."Buehler?.....Buehler?...." I think I am still hearing crickets. What about for just a few hours? I'll take anything at this point. (*Disclaimer: We DO use hired help from time to time but we've only got so many hundred dollar bills, y'all....) We intend to travel the world with little R but the more mobile he becomes, it just seems so.......hard. Like major amounts of effort difficult. I'm sure we could do it though. For now, we're reserving big trips for just the two of us. Whatevs. Looking at a digital beach sounds pretty good to me. I love making my own piƱa coladas too. Said no one ever. Oh well. This too shall pass. In the meantime, I'll live vicariously through the Travel Channel.

PRO: You learn patience. Buckets of patience.
CON: It's not necessarily in the ways you would like to learn patience....we're talking tolerating non-stop crying, waking at all hours of the night, and arguing with your spouse over who slept more the night before. I usually win this one. ;)

PRO: Your baby loves you no matter what.
CON: Your baby loves you no matter what.....especially when he is teething at 3:15 am. When he just sh*t his brains out and it's in the car seat. And when he cannot be put down or you will experience a scene from the movie Chucky in real life.

Overall, the pros outweigh the cons for sure. Mostly because I don't want to die alone when I'm 98. Nope, I'd rather be surrounded by my kid(s) who I may have lost lots of sleep over, but who love me no matter what!

Oh, and just for your information, once again, Gus seems totally unaffected by this week's events. How nice for him.

2 comments:

  1. And all of those crummy times are still TOTALLY outweighed by the fact that you get these fabulous little people in your life!

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  2. I totally agree! It is a never-ending, fun-filled adventure for sure!

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