What a Morning

First, a weekend update, then the story of the week...

This weekend was such a nice break. Eric was (obviously) off, so on both Friday and Saturday nights he got up with the baby so I could sleep. What a wonderful husband I have! It was great to feel like I could hold my eyelids open on Saturday and Sunday- a nice change from the normal I-fall-asleep-standing-up newborn tiredness! :)

On Saturday the ladies from church threw me a post-baby shower. It was supposed to be held back in May, but since Eli decided to come really early, it got postponed. It was so nice to be with these dear friends and to receive such a blessing from them! I'm so grateful!

And now for an amusing story that really wasn't that amusing when it happened but is slowly becoming more amusing as I think about it... Warning: This is pretty gross, so read with caution. All moms will understand. :)

So last night was a really sleepless night for me and Eli. We have to fortify the milk he drinks so that he gets enough calories to grow, and this makes him really constipated. (I told you it was gross- it gets grosser.) Last night was particularly bad- he was up most of the night fussing and squirming and crying, and I just held him and prayed! By 7am I couldn't stand it any more- he was breaking my heart!- so I gave him a glycerin suppository, which work like a charm for all those of you who need a good constipation remedy for babies! :) It did it's job after about twenty minutes, and Eli calmed down and went right to sleep- he was probably exhausted after a long sleepless night!

I decided to change his diaper and was planning on going right to bed myself- I was just as tired as he was! The diaper was FULL, and I had waited long enough for him to be done filling it (or so I thought). I pulled back the diaper, lifted up his legs, and he BLASTED poop all over me, the bed, and the carpet. The bed (where I was changing him) is about four feet from the dresser, and the poop covered the carpet all the way from the bed to the dresser. And it's that orange mustard poop that newborns have. And the carpet is white. I almost started crying.

Eli, of course, was sleeping like a rock, leaving his mother to strip the bed, strip him, wash him, clothe him, put him to bed, douse all the linens with a hearty portion of spray-and-wash, start a load of laundry, and begin the process of scrubbing a gallon of poop off of the white nursery carpet. As I sat there on the floor, scrub brush in hand, poop on my shirt, going on about an hour of sleep, I thought, "Welcome to motherhood." And I was able to smile.

This is just the beginning, I am sure, of things like this. And the crazy thing is that it is SO WORTH IT. I am slowly learning that motherhood is a tremendous sacrifice, but one that has the absolute greatest reward imagineable. As Eli sleeps off his long night, I am smiling and laughing about our morning adventure. And I am thanking the Lord again for my wonderful husband who comfortingly said, "Just leave it- I'll clean it all up when I get home." What a man! I hope Eli turns out just like him.