When I found out I was pregnant with my first child way back in 2008, lots of things ran through my mind while I was both excited and scared. I thought about whether I was having a girl or a boy, I wondered what I would name my child, I wondered what my child would look like.. would he or she look more like me or their dad. I wondered and worried about if I would be a good mother, and other trivia things.
Not once did it cross my naive mind that my child would eventually get sick, and if they did what would I do about it. I was like most first time parents, I never thought anything bad could happen. I silently judged parents that sat in the waiting room with their child they claimed was sick, but still managed to run around and scream. As soon as my oldest Keera was born, my mind changed. I was that parent constantly sitting in the waiting room with the baby, I would say I’m sorry but I’m not. My mind had changed, and I’d rather be safe than sorry. I would rather get my children checked, than end up being the one in a million statistic.
Now that I’m a mom of three, well I’ve been a mom of three since 2013 but still I’ve mellowed out. I don’t rush to the doctor with every fever, or every bruise I sometimes wait it out. I think that’s just a parent thing, once your child gets older or you become a parent to more than once child you just learn to “read” them. You know what’s not doctor worthy, and what could just be a 24 hour stomach bug.
If I’m unsure and it’s not life threatening, we wait until the morning after. With my middle child, Zaden he spent so much time at the hospital I wouldn’t doubt they had our file ready for us to come in. He was and still is all over the place, he hasn’t been “fragile” since he turned 6 months old he’s my wild child.
It only took me three kids to experience it, but before tonight I was blessed to not have to clean up a puke covered car-seat. Emilee wasn’t feeling well on the way home, and before I was able to give her a bucket she ended up puking all over herself and her car-seat. I’ve taught all my kids since they were able to crawl, to puke in a bucket if they felt sick. Sometimes they miss and other times they get sick out of nowhere and messes just happen, this however is the first time it’s got on the car-seat.
It’s not the vomit that bothers me, because I’ve dealt with vomit before on numerous occasions. I can deal with the disgusting smell, and the clean up. What bothers me now and probably will bother me forever is having to watch my kids be sick. It’s hard having to sit there, and watch these tiny humans deal with fever, the chills, the heat, the vomit, the lack of sleep, etc.
It pains me that I’m not able to take away their pain, that I have to sit there most of the time and “wait it out”. It’s one of the hardest parts of parenting… so far anyways. It’s moments like that you think, yeah I’d take their sickness times two if it means they don’t get sick again. I’d rather deal with the vomit, the chills, the heat, the headaches, I would take it all if it meant they were never sick again.
It’s hard watching someone so small and fragile looking being sick, thanks to Emilee though I’ve now checked off another parent learning thing off my parent list. I’ve learnt how to remove a puke covered car-seat cover, and put it back on afterwards. So I guess you could say Parent Achievement Unlocked. 🙂