On August 4th my second baby girl turned six years old. From pregnancy to present she has always been my wildest and most exhausting child. I have never required a lot of sleep to function which has always served me well for motherhood. However, when my tiny little redhead was born even I was pushed to my limits. Just like her mother she does not require a lot of sleep and her high metabolic rate keeps her constantly on the go. Therefore this momma has to be on the go for the last six years to make sure that she stays alive. She still pushes me to my limits in every way and as a Momma I have learned to adapt on a dime because of my spunky freckled faced six year old.
We became pregnant with our first child extremely easily so when we struggled with infertility for our second little lady we were totally taken off guard. Conceiving a sibling was a job for almost two years of our lives. Once we finally got pregnant she continued to test her momma. I was the sickest I have ever been for the first 16 weeks. Candy canes and mozzarella sticks were the only things I could stomach and the smell of cooking food always made me hurl. For Christmas that year I actually had to wear a gas mask in my in-laws house to stop from throwing up while Christmas dinner was being prepared. The pregnancy problems continued when I was diagnosed with extreme gestational diabetes which required shots of insulin four times a day by the time we got to the last month. Also in the last month I was put on "limited mobility". All moms understand the enormity of this task since I was still raising an almost three year old at the same time. Despite all the trials of conception and pregnancy I still had no idea the challenges she would create once she was out of my body.
When our sweet little redhead was five months we took our first of many trips to the emergency room. Every mom who has a kid with a specific illness knows they become an expert on that illness. Stidor is a complication from a virus commonly referred to as croup. Stidor constricts the airway so that in the middle of night the child struggles to catch their breath. Every two weeks from October to March I was in the ER with my sweet girl until the wee hours of the morning. All the doctors ran all the tests to try and figure out why this was happening to her. Right before her first birthday she had a massive amount of blood work done and everything was normal. The next step was a bronchial scope right before her second birthday at the children's hospital. We did discover that she has an allergic reaction to anesthesia which caused her to stop breathing during the procedure but no resolution to the stridor situation. Last year was the first year we didn't have to go to the ER for stidor. Everyone is hoping that she has grown out of it but only time will tell. Even if she has grown out of that issue she has found other ways to keep us on our toes.
In the beginning of 2020 my middle kid was borderline OCD. After the lockdown we had to start seeing a psychologist who told us that she now has Anxiety Control Disorder. She has worked really hard to overcome a lot of her anxieties and I am amazed every day by her perseverance and strength. The main thing that I cherish about my newly turned 6 year old is that she has taught me more than she will ever know. I never knew the amount of things that I was capable of as a mother until she came into our lives. I never knew the amount of out of things out of my control that I would be able to juggle while tending to her needs. I never knew the amount of things I would learn just to make sure that she was taken care of in the best way possible. If you had told me I would be able to do all these things I would have thought you were crazy. However, I am living proof that our most challenging children will push us to places we never thought possible. Our immense love for them transforms us into people we don't even recognize and that is a beautiful thing.
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