The kids

The kids

Monday, November 15, 2010

Initiation

Well, it's official, we are parents. One would think this would have felt official 18 months ago when Emerson was born. Or if that wasn't enough to make it feel real, you would think that Evan being born 4 weeks ago would have sealed the deal. But the truth is, even as recently as Saturday morning, I don't think either of us really felt like there was any way we could be parents. I mean we are young and more than that we are cool....there is no way we could be parents right??? Honestly, on Saturday afternoon when some of our great friends (Nicky and Scott...who happen to be dating now...woohooo!), stopped by to bring us dinner and to meet to little Evan, I remember thinking to myself, "there is no way I am the mother of two." Fast forward and few hours to approximately 10:37pm (only a few minutes away from an unbelievable Gamecock victory), and all of that changes.

In the wee hours of Friday night/early Saturday morning when I was up with EVAN because he was super congested and had a bad cough, I decided I should take him to the doctor in the morning. So I did, I took EVAN to the doctor Saturday morning. They told me what I thought they would tell me, "he has a little cold. Keep an eye on it. If he has a fever of 110.4 or higher take him to the ER." Got it. So we stayed home all day Saturday and had a rest day.

Back to 10:37pm Saturday night. I was watching my Gamecocks win and I was loving it and I was pumped to watch them wrap up the victory. Then all of the sudden I hear EMERSON screaming over the baby monitor. Which I should note is not abnormal these days. Ever since we brought Evan home, she often has a hard time going to bed or wakes up crying. It's like she thinks we are up partying with out her. Which of course we are because are cool and not parent like at all. Anyway, Garrett went to go check on her (since he's a Clemson fan and not as invested as I am in watching the Gamecocks bring home the W). A few seconds later I hear him bringing her down stairs and I think to myself in an annoyed way, "Why is he bringing her down here?? He just needs to make her go back to bed." I'm a good wife like that.

Anyway, as he walks into the room with her he says "We need to take her temperature, she's on fire." As he says this he plops her down in my lap. He was right, she was blazing hot. Garrett had brought the thermometer down with him so we immediately take her temp, 102 degrees. Please note she is still sitting in my lap facing me. Within 3 seconds of confirming her fever, she looks at me and starts sobbing, and then projectile vomits in my lap. While everyone starts scrambling to get supplies to clean up (we are sitting on my parents nice sofa), she projectile vomits in my lap, again.

We get everyone cleaned up and then I decide to put out an air mattress in her room so she and I can sleep on it together so I can keep a close eye on her. Mistake. However, in the short time we were on the air mattress together I tried to snuggle her and she kept pushing my hands away from her. Finally as I was laying there, I started to feel like a parent. I found myself thinking things like, "I wish I was sick, not her." "I wish she would let me snuggle and comfort her...I'm sure there will be lots of other times in her life that I want to comfort her when she won't want me to." And as I began to go down the trail of very parental thoughts, she looked at me and projectile vomited in my face again. Yes, I have been initiated into parenthood.

Luckily, the vomiting only lasted a few hours and the fever only lasted about 24 hours. And luckily again, Garrett got his initiation in to parenthood yesterday when he was sitting on the couch holding Em and somehow her diaper sprung a leak and she peed all in his lap. Yes, I took a picture.
Can you say A.W.E.S.O.M.E. I still can't stop laughing about it. Anyway, the point of this whole story is this: #1. Having sick kids really made me feel like a parent #2. Beware: If you take your 4 week old to the doctor for a cold, your 18 month may start puking shortly thereafter....the irony. Maybe the real lesson is that I'm not that great of parent b/c I took the wrong kid to the doctor.

Here is a pic of Em with a serious stomach virus and fever of 102 degrees and she still knows how to cheese it. I wish I was this cute.

2 comments:

Leah said...

poor babies. sounds like my house the last few days...except it was my littlest love and my hubby...who don't worry needs JUST as much tlc as the babies....MEN! love you and hope things are going well and don't worry you are totally cool parents! i often think the same thing about me and my two!

katie said...

Oh dear. I did laugh out loud when I read she puked in your face. That sounds so mean of me, but the way you write it is just so funny! I can hear your voice telling the story. What a terrible time! And yes, sick kids DO make you feel like a real parent, especially when you have to clean up puke.