Somehow, something tells you that parenting would be really hard because it can't be learned purely from reading parenting books. The baby book did not actually mention reflux and constipation.
After Kate Shelby, a writer, gave birth to her first child, she perfectly knew her world would completely change. "I was very naive to think after a very difficult delivery I would have a few months to recover. My baby will just sleep and eat for a while, won't he? Um. No," Shelby said as cited on The Huffington Post.
The baby book did not make any mention anything about reflux as well as constipation. When a baby becomes sick, it is basically the mother's job to siphon the snot out of the poor infant. "They cry when they want you. They want you a lot," Shelby explained. Babies, of course, do not come with a sleep guarantee; and what is even worse is that mothers may even get the added price tag of postnatal depression. Shelby's parenting woes did not just end there. Postpartum depression is only natural in which a woman experiences sudden chemical changes in her body that involve a rapid drop in hormones after delivery according to WebMD.
Shelby describes her first two years as a parent as quite tough: hard-core parenting and coffee for breakfast. It became even tougher after she received the devastating news that her first born had cancer. This really meant that she needed to be in parent mode 24/7: no room for holidays and no feeling sorry for herself. "We are off that roller coaster now but the gift of perspective will be with me forever," Shelby recalled.
If Shelby rolls over at night and then finds a piece of half-eaten Vegemite toast in her bed, it really seems pretty immaterial in comparison. Her daughter's dress code whenever at home is more often 'naked'. According to Shelby, she frequently does the school drop off with her shirt on inside-out. "The principal probably has my number on speed dial. Yet I am continually complemented on what lovely kids I have so I must be winning at something," she remarked.
But does she want her "before children" life back? Her answer to this question is an absolute No. "Although sometimes my legs look like a national park and I celebrate the disgusting things I find in my washing machine, I love being a mother," she said.
For Shelby, every difficult day, every seemingly insurmountable challenge, every heartbreaking situation has really been worth it.
