Oh dear… when you’re used to “different” stuff it’s difficult to cope with “normal” stuff!
I realised it this morning… when I phoned to book an appointment with our pediatrician for our 3 week old baby boy who is a bit grumpy at night…
With our first daughter, Anika, I (almost) never had to book appointments with pediatricians within the first two years of her life – we were in hospital/ICU wards at least once a month so we could just ask the specialists about any issues and concerns whenever they did their rounds!
There are also some other first-time-“normal” things we need to cope with this time around… like the umbilical cord that needs to be cleaned and kept dry in order for it to fall off (Anika’s cord was off before she came home), the routine you need to get the baby into (which the nurses did on our behalf the previous time around), burping Reuben over my shoulder is also different now as we couldn’t do it with Anika (her feet were pulled up to her chest so we couldn’t get her body in a straight position in order to burp her properly).
This time around I also don’t duck-n-dive the milestone articles in magazines – which I realised is better to do in any case… in my opinion 🙂
But with Anika we never had the “normal” baby issues like colic, rashes, measles, tonsils, ear pain, etc. – we were too busy with the brain, spinal cord, foot etc. operations and MRI scans – no time for the “small stuff”!
So yes, “normal” things are “different” to us now, and now I realise that the “small stuff” drains you physically and emotionally just as much as the “bigger stuff” – I think the lack of adrenaline this time might also make a difference!
Today I want to give a shout-out and a high-5 to all the parents who had to (and still do) cope with “small stuff”… I was under the impression that you had an easy time playing mommy and daddy – but now I know that there’s more to it!
