This Too Shall Pass

“This too shall pass”

At least that’s what the pediatrician said to me Tuesday afternoon as I stood in his office for the third time this week.

Yeah, we’re overachievers up in here.  We doubled down on visits to the pediatrician on Monday, went back on Tuesday, and then threw in a visit to another doctor on Wednesday.  You know, just to make sure G was good and traumatized by the middle of the week.

There are hard weeks in this parenting gig, and then there are weeks like this one.  Weeks when J and I are summoning everyone – EV-ER-Y-ONE – in our village because we are both tapped out at work and G has been sick. Weeks when there just isn’t enough coffee to overcome the sleep deprivation happening.

“If it makes you feel better, this is normal.”

These were the words from the pediatrician at that third visit when he saw tears stinging my eyes, threatening to spill over.  Do you have days where you wish you could snap your fingers and your little one would be his or her happy little self again?  That was me on Tuesday.

Can we go back to Sunday? Sunday was a good day.  We played outside and sang and danced…let’s go back to that. 

I should mention:  We’re fine.  G’s fine.  We’ll all be okay. Really small potatoes in the grand scheme of things. The smallest of the potatoes.  Russet potatoes?

I should stop trying to wax poetic about potatoes. I’m not going to be able to find a meaningful allegory here.  I went to work with makeup on half my face today, let’s keep that bar low. 

This week has taught me that there are just a handful of things I know for sure about parenting:

1. I really know nothing and I must take each day as it comes. They must have lost my address when they sent out crystal balls. If you have a spare do feel free to contact me and I would gladly take it off your hands.

2. There’s nothing I won’t do for my daughter.  She changed me and made me a momma – I owe her this.  Sleepless nights and working from home late into the evening and waking up long before the sun – I would do anything for that silly girl. 

3. This too shall pass. The nursing around the clock passed, the sleepless nights passed, the separation anxiety passed…and this will pass, too.

And until it does, I’ll just lean on my people, and love on my girl.

Really, is there anything I could be doing that is better than that?

P.S. – Thanks for all of the funny comments and anecdotes on this post.  I totally should have added nursing gymnastics to my list!

Posted by Kelly & filed under Motherhood. This post has 4 comments.