Sticks & Bones May Break Their Bones, But Words Can Do The Same.

As a parent but especially as a mom I have a bunch of (probably mostly irrational) fears when it comes to my daughter. Hell she was in my womb for nine full months. I literally grew her from scratch. I want to protect that child from the bottom of her feet to the top of her little head. And all of that in between. Including her brain and most importantly her heart. I will do all that I can to make sure she’s not in harms way. And if she does find herself in harms way, I intend to raise her strong so she can deal with it in a healthy manner. What I’m fearing as a mom I know is normal… and what a good parent should be feeling. I worry about kidnapping, car accidents, chocking, their overall health, etc. What uneases me the most though is bullying. I am beyond terrified that my daughter will face bullying as I did. I wouldn’t wish that pain and defeat even on the kids who bullied me. So to imagine my daughter having the same thing happen to her. I want to cry. Ugh so many shivers go down my spine. I tear at just the thought of it. My baby is only four months old but as we know time flies and sooner than later my daughter will be in school and I’ll have to worry of the taunting from other children. Great. As we all know kids can be so cruel. SO CRUEL. How do we fix this? How do I prepare my daughter to potentially have to deal with this? I’ll tell you one thing… it all starts at home so that’s exactly what I’ll do. My dear sweet Maxly, I hope mommy teaches you to love yourself and love others. About confidence. I hope I prepare you well my darling girl.

My daughter has Abortive Hemangioma on the bottom of her hand throughout her arm where her forearm meets. Also known as a “strawberry.” I know she was born beautiful and I know this mark truly does make her more unique but sadly I also know because of this birthmark, it makes her more apt to be bullied. As I stated earlier, even though she is only four months old I talk to her about her strawberry everyday and will continue to do so everyday. The doctor says it’ll grow with her and she’ll eventually grow out of it but that could take five to ten years. Doesn’t really narrow it down for me there, thanks doc. Her father and I, and our other family members and close family friends will always let her know how beautiful it/she is and she will learn it embrace her mark and realize it truly is a beauty mark. Even putting this aside I still fear children will find other things to pick on her for. Its inevitable. Kids will find ANYTHING to jeer at others.

I was picked on throughout my days of childhood and teenage years but 5th grade and my senior year of high school were the absolute worst. I am just glad I had a strong and loving family behind me and was raised with love, self love, self confidence and forgiveness because if not I might have become another statistic.

I would define a bully as a person, no matter what age, who takes their anger, emotions and / or insecurities out on someone else, usually someone “weaker” than them. I don’t think people crying bully too often – but I could add in that the term itself can be black and white for sure, but each case of “bullying” should be treated with care and individually. I don’t think it’s fair for people to think one person is more or less of a victim than someone else because I was a victim too.

Bullying is a real crises. It’s not just a made up game that people like to “invent.” People think bullying is “crying wolf” and to me that’s mind boggling. I fear that bullying will only get worse as the years go on. It starts at home. Bullying is taught at home but so is dealing with a bully. Your parents are your first teachers. First it starts with having a good home. A loving home. A supportive home. You need to have a home of values, patience and understanding. Teach your child compassion and to treat all others with kindness. Build them up so they’ll too want to build up themselves others! Bullies are usually bullied themselves, or they were raised to think they don’t have to be held accountable for anything. I will not raise my daughter that way. You shouldn’t either.

You must love yourself and realize that you are important and you do matter; amazing and powerful words for your children to live by You and your life are worth it, and that is something you should never forget. The hurtful words by one are nothing compared to the positive shouts of many.

 

 

Friday the 13th Edition; 13 Disgusting Things Moms Endure For Their Baby

TGIF the 13th. Every Friday the 13th is a great day for me, as was today! I was thinking earlier about how much I love my life and all the happiness I’m blessed with that fills my heart each day. Specifically today, I was thinking of motherhood. And how motherhood is always with me… usually in the form of something kind of gross on a piece of my clothing. Then I remembered they joys of motherhood, also known as some pretty unpleasant and nasty things that go along with your child. *Shivers*

I know it sounds awful to call your beautiful and loved baby disgusting or think of them as icky.. but come on think about it.. they’re essentially a tiny drunk little human – someone totally incapable of caring for themselves so you have to meet their every need.

Motherhood is great. Motherhood is disgusting. Don’t believe me? I thought maybe I was being over dramatic but then I created a list in my head so here I present to you 13 experiences (in honor of my favorite day(s) Friday the 13) that prove motherhood isn’t always so delightful.

1. Milking their eye. Recently my daughters eye has been watery almost constantly and gooky almost half of the time. I knew it wasn’t pink eye because well frankly it wasn’t pink and she wasn’t trying to rub or itch it. After a few days I went to the pediatrician to get her opinion, and as I thought based on research, my daughters tear duct is undeveloped so essentially the gook that’s coming out is literally boogers. It’ll go away naturally within weeks or months or even up to a year but in the mean time there’s a way to “help” it. Milking her eye. What you do is take your finger and press upwards towards the eye until you reach the corner. It massages the nasal cavity and clears the airway, literally. Come to find out the gook in her eye is in fact boogers…. So yesterday when I “milked” her nasal cavity a giant boogie shot out of the corner of her eye and hit my face. Pleasant I know.
2. Boogers. The suction cup device they use at the hospital / the recommend once you’re home is a joke. Not to mention an incubator of mold. Have you ever cut one of those things open? Yuck. Last week my daughter was so stuffy (how I discovered the undeveloped tear duct) and I felt terrible. I myself suffer from a deviated septum and the worst allergies so I needed to help her as best as I could. I’d do anything for that girl. I have a NoseFrida (WHICH IS AMAZING BY THE WAY!!) which gets 90% of boogers. A Q-tip didn’t work..too big. My finger didn’t work.. too big. So for some reason I thought of an alternative.. my mouth. Yup. I put my entire mouth over her button nose and sucked up her boogies. Clear nose for her and booger filled nose for me.
3. Pee. All the pee. In the diaper. Through the diaper. On you. Self explanatory.
4. Poop. Putting aside the first poop which is black as tar…poop is everywhere always. Actually not always but a good amount of the time, especially after a three day constipation period. It literally looks like a full blown human made a poop in that size one diaper. When they do have blowouts… that poop gets up their back, up their stomach, on their face, all over you, all over the changing pad. It’s beautiful. Not. Its smelly, uncomfortable, but worth it. They’re babies they can’t help it.
5. Formula Burps. There’s no way to describe the stench unless you lived them. They’re smelly and gross but honestly I love them. It’s sick but I don’t care. Burping after feedings are good! And warranted. They help assure you you’re child is healthy and digesting the way they should be. Yay!
6. Throw up. Ugh vile. You think the formula burps are bad, multiply that by 50..maybe more, and you get stuck with formula aftermath, baby vomit. One themselves, on you, on their clothes, on your clothes, it’s just so yucky.
7. Sneezes. At least twice a day I get sneezed on. Oh well.
8. Farts. You think a baby fart would be cute. You’d think a baby fart would be quiet…containing no scent. HAHAHAHA WRONG. Maybe it’s just me. Maybe it’s just my child, but that girl passes gas like an old man. And then she sharts. It’s good for some laughs but it’s so gross and smelly. My four month old might be 44 years old.
9. Abortive Hemangioma: Aka strawberries.Abortive Hemangioma is a “birthmark” which will grow with my daughter on her wrist/forearm until around the age of five. Abortive meaning minor, thank goodness. It’s a red mark where her capillary veins come to the surface and find a home on the top of her skin. The mark itself makes her unique, and even though this is my mindset the look of it is a little unsettling from time to time, especially when you touch it and it feels like her arm is literally on freaking fire. It’s so hot. Like I said it makes her unique but when I really look at it, I feel so bad but it makes me feel skeeved out.
10. Scabs from birth. I know that spending some time in the birth canal before birth it can allow for scabs from trauma but in my case I was internally monitored whilst in labor. They hooked multiple monitors through my vagina into my babies head. Literally screwed them into her. Four months go by and her scab finally “fell off.” I may have picked it but the doctor ok’d it at this point, I swear it was ready. I couldn’t look at it any longer.
11. Stinky fingers. No matter what the time of year, when you have a new born you keep their hands covered so their hands stay warm and they cant scratch themselves with their jagged fingernails. As logical as this is… I always forget about the sweat that builds up. SWEAT STINKS. Therefore your babies hand reek. No amount of fresh air or hand sanitizer does the trick so bath time it is!
12. Belly button. I am a freak when it comes to belly buttons. I don’t like them. I don’t even know why. Maybe we can blame Kyle XY? Maybe not I don’t know. But when you’re baby is first born and you have to handle their healing belly button it’s kind of unsettling. I obviously know it’s normal but crap it’s weird. Even now, four months after she’s born her belly button today was dry and I was weirded out of the fact that I had to put lotion in it to keep it moisturized and healthy.
13. Blood in poop. Hemorrhoids. Baby’s get them too although they’re called fissure’s which essentially are painful hemorrhoids inside of their tushy. Ouch. I’m a worry wart and I panic a lot when something isn’t right but I try to take a step back when it comes to my child. When my child was maybe not even a month old she did a number two and her poop was full of mucus blood. Come to find out it was normal but scary and disgusting nonetheless.

Whether you have the stomach for it or not, parenting undeniable makes your stomach stronger. Motherhood is lovely as shit but like I said, disgusting at the same time. You love your little one but it’s totally natural if you look at your baby and think “I love you but Goddamn you’re gross.”