Mr. Mom

I’m going to start off by saying, I love my husband. He is an amazing man and father. A lot of times he is more patient and reasonable than I am. When Avery cries bloody murder throughout the night and I say “well, I think it may be time for her to find her own place.” He calmly tells me “That it’s just a phase, and everything will be OK.” He is absolutely the rock in the group. However, like most men, he doesn’t really understand how much goes into being a mom. That is, until I got sick this past weekend and Jon got to see first hand what it’s like to be a full time mommy.

Granted, when a man is sick, his place is usually on the bed or on the couch and that’s as far as he goes unless nature calls. When a woman is sick, she’s basically just doing the same things she normally does, but just feels worse doing them. This Saturday, I was pretty sick and was in bed for most of the day. I woke Jon up at 8am and said that I just couldn’t do it and I didn’t want to get her sick so he had to help. He finally emerged around 9 and I went to lie down. I will give him this; Avery is teething, so she was a lot more fussy than normal. I would come out of the room every once in awhile (to switch the laundry around because as I said, a mom’s schedule doesn’t change much on a sick day) to see how everything was going. Jon was visibly exhausted. I kind of smiled inside because this was the same guy that referred to my 9 weeks of maternity leave as a “Vacation.” Yes, vacation. What every woman dreams of!! Waddling for the first few days, barely showering, no sleep, messy house, crying baby, washing dishes (including bottles and of course pump parts) still cooking but hardly eating, pumping, breastfeeding and in our case also supplementing. It was an AMAZING break. I don’t even know why we went to Hawaii for our honeymoon when we should just continue to reproduce so I get this vacation every year.  

This is the way I believe a man envisions maternity leave. Woman gets to stay home, watch TV, relax, take up a hobby, eat all day, look through magazines, cleans because of course every woman loves to clean and since she’s not “that busy” should absolutely have dinner on the table because she can just do it when the baby is sleeping.

OK, Jon may not have thought it was quite like this, but I think he thought it is a lot easier than it was. But now, after this Saturday, I think he gets it.

Towards the end of the night I was feeling better and took over. I did our usual bath and sat with her until she went to sleep. All and all, it was a rough day for everyone. Even though I did enjoy my mini break, it’s still tough to be away from her and to hear her cry when she’s so close. But I think that we all learned valuable lessons from the experience.

I learned that it’s OK to take a break and take care of myself.

Avery learned that daddy can do just as good of job as mommy can.

And Jon learned what an absolutely amazing, hardworking, selfless, phenomenal, and insanely beautiful wife that he has. J He may not have said that all but the look in his eyes when I took over Saturday night, it couldn’t have been clearer. 

So with all this being said, I love my husband because he is willing to help when I need him to and I love my Miss. Avery more than ever. She turned four months old on 12/26. And based upon the weight scale she is still a peanut, clocking in at only 9% for body weight. She is going to be leggy like her mom and is the 22% for height. The pediatrician said that she is super aware of her surroundings for a four month old (no surprise to us since our little girl is the nosiest little thing on the planet) and looks as healthy as can be!!! Check out the Status page for more details.