Totally out of my depth

A friend of mine recently said to me that she see's me taking motherhood all in my stride. She said I never look stressed or agitated about the kids.

She did make this comment as I was childless at a wedding, or else I'm sure her comment would have been more like "gosh, you look a little overwhelmed today, are you ok?"

I realised that because I often post about my ideals, or what I would like to be like, my blog can look a little like I'm just cruising through motherhood. Truth be told, I'm pretty highly strung in general, so add to the mix two people whose sole existence depends on whether I treat them properly or not, and here I am a little over the edge of "highly strung" and more in the realm of "about to lose my mind" (hyperbole added)

To flesh out some of my journey as a mother, here's 3 incidents that occurred on the same day, that show me in my true light and to show those of you out there that although I put on a brave face, I'm totally out of my depth with this mothering thing! I'm sure that if I was a full-time nanny, I'd be fired right about now and searching for a new career.

Number 1. I change Willow's nappy, and leave her lying on the floor, playing, while I head to the kitchen to wash my hands and dispose of the poo nappy. I return no less than a minute later to see that Willow has successfully undone her new nappy and now has it firmly jammed within her gums, sucking ferociously on it's contents. (And yes, if you were paying attention, it was a new one, so thankfully that lessens the stress factor a tad. But the heart stopping delay in me realising that fact was somewhat damaging to my psyche.)

Number 2. Avalon decides that on this day, she will cry and writhe on the change table when I attempt to change her dirty nappy. This results in me pleading then shouting as her worm-like state causes me to clean ineffectively with the wipe and more effectively with my fingernails across her bottom. The reminder of this incident was seen on her ankles (chinese burn like hold marks) and smelt on my hands for the remainder of the day.

Number 3. As I spend a minute (yes only a minute) attending to poor little Willow's needs while Avy is bathing, Avy finds that moment a perfect opportunity to lean out precariously across the bath, hands outstretched. She rights herself before she falls headfirst onto the tiled floor, but manages to achieve her goal of grabbing her new nappy and bed clothes off the tiles and returning them into the bubble bath for a play.

See proof below.

This photo doesn't do it justice. It would have weighed at least 2kgs. At least I know now that I've been changing her far too regularly =)

Poo poo poo

It's on nights like this where Craig's out again and I'm on my own to listen out for cries from my newly settled-in-the-same-room children that I dread the decision to do washable nappies.

Sure, they're great for the environment "ra ra ra", save me money "yada yada yada"...

But I'm totally over holding my breath until I see stars come into my field of vision.

My friend Sarah said I'd get over the poo factor, and that I'd stop wearing gloves after a while.

Wrong. Sorry Sar.

I'm actually getting even more neurotic and sterilising the gloves afterwards, just in case one ever falls off the sink and Avalon ends up having fun with it while I'm obliviously feeding Willow in the adjoining room.

The task is so unrewarding that I've decided to tally how much I'm saving on using them. Then I've decided that I'm going to treat myself to another piece of furniture in our sparse house. Probably a useless piece of furniture. You know the type. Looks-great-but-with-no-real-purpose type of furniture. The type of furniture which Craig would think is a waste of space so we'd never get it type of furniture.

I'm so silly, but when I spend much of my waking life in this house, it's nice to think that there'll be a little reminder of my unnecessary efforts staring back at me every day.

I think once that useless but pretty piece of furniture is sitting in a room ,it'll be then that I'll say for sure "yeah, washable nappies, they're worth the effort!"