Friday, May 04, 2012

Mother's Day is Coming So . . .

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Mother's Day is coming (May 13th) and you're probably a good mom and like to spend the day with your kids in honor of your special day. As much as I love their guts, I do that every day. On Mother's Day I prefer to sleep in, go on a jog (without a biking child sidekick), eat good food that has not been touched by childlike germs, read a book, take a nap . . .

So if by chance you might have a free 15 minutes on your special day . . . I'm offering free shipping for Totally Desperate Mom until May 11th. So if you want it, buy it for yourself. Or tell your husband. Or forward him this post with explicit instructions. In other words, don't drop hints. Men are not about the whole "read my mind" or "get this hint" approach. $12 flat. Please email me at wendy at wendyhagen dot net if you want to order and I will email you a paypal invoice.


Here is  what happened to me yesterday when the girls got too tired to scoot home from swim practice and here is an excerpt from the end of  Chapter 5 of Totally Desperate Mom "Newborns: The Black Hole."

Lest you think this book is totally impractical and offers nothing in the way of solid parenting wisdom and direction, here you go. It’s bad enough that as a new mom you pretty much second-guess all the decisions you make. Then along come the Nervous Nellies who offer the same suggestion every time your baby so much as makes a peep. (I am not going to say for sure this is your mom or mother-in-law, but the chances are good.) “I think he’s hungry. I think he wants to eat. You should feed him. When’s the last time you fed him?” Said person was there when you fed the baby thirty minutes earlier.
Here is how you might think about responding: “Oh yeah? I think you’re the one who’s hungry, Mommy Dearest!” It’s worked out well for me. Shuts her right down . . . and makes her cry. It’s okay, though. You might find it good company to have someone to cry with when you are in The Black Hole. Did I mention you might cry a lot in The Black Hole?

“Every child is different.” This is one statement “they” say that is actually true. Therefore, every child will chew you up and spit you out of The Black Hole on a different timetable. I cannot definitively say when you will emerge from the stupor, but I can say that it is greatly influenced by the amount of sleep you get. Not every baby sleeps through the night by six weeks or even a year or eight. But even if your baby is not sleeping through the night completely, she will eventually wake up less often. And she will figure out the difference between daytime and nighttime. And you will start to kind of figure things out. You will get more than one thing checked off your to-do list.
I think it is safe to say that by about three months, most women will begin to emerge from the darkness and into the light of the infant stage!

TDM Tip: Give yourself grace during The Black Hole. You are going through a huge life adjustment . . . on completely inadequate sleep. You may feel like you don’t know what you are doing, but God has specifically designed you to be the mom for your child and He knows what He’s doing.

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wendy at wendyhagen dot net if you want the rest of it for twelve bucks.


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2 comments:

Faith said...

Thanks for the reminder and encouragement! It might be time to re-read your book as we are 5 days into the "black hole" for the second time :)

Linda Z said...

Haha... the Black Hole. The ironic thing in our house is that the kids sleep through the night, but my husband and I can't anymore. What is up with that one??? :P