A dear friend sent me a quote by G.K. Chesterton today that I had to post. It is a good reminder for moms on those hopefully infrequent days when they are frustrated and feeling unfulfilled by this new job called motherhood. No matter how much we love it, there are times when we wonder if the grass would be greener anywhere else.
"How can it be a large career to tell other people's children about the Rule of Three, and small career to tell one's own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone and narrow to be everything to someone? No, a woman's function is laborious, but because it is gigantic, not because it is minute."
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My sister asked me recently how much weight I had lost after having Little Girl just 6 1/2 months prior. She was discouraged by all the weight she had put on in her pregnancy and how she hadn't lost much during her delivery.
Here's my secret. My three children all need to eat when they wake up or they have major meltdowns. By the time I get the four of us dressed and the three kids fed, it's at least 10am. As I sit here today, it's 10:45am and so far my breakfast has consisted of a cup of coffee and a Nutrigrain bar that I just now ate. It seems silly to eat a real breakfast at this point since lunch is less than 2 hours away.
It's easy to lose weight when you skip meals and your kids eat half the food on your plate because they didn't realize that's what they wanted until they saw it on your plate.
Incidentally, I didn't lose the weight after my first baby. We had extenuating circumstances - she was in the hospital for 7 weeks, and then in and out very frequently that first year. People brought us lots of food and even more desserts. This was a huge help because I was incapable of doing meals myself. But I ate a lot and didn't move around much. Big Girl didn't crawl and walk and get into everything so I didn't have to do much to keep her out of trouble. Ok, I did a lot, but it was things like figure out her insane medicine schedule, run her to therapies and doctor's appointments, learn to feed her through a tube inserted into her stomach through her nose, and try to get enough sleep despite having to feed her every 3 hours around the clock because she couldn't gain weight. I started my second pregnancy 15-20 pounds heavier than I was at the beginning of my first.
Having a second child changed everything. It was awesome to have a child progress through all the stages without any effort on my part. It was like having another first-born. Everything was new and amazing. Big Girl began to learn about taking turns and delayed gratification. I learned to enjoy motherhood. And I was suddenly very busy, very physically active, and without any effort on my part, the weight melted off. All of it.
So dear sister, that's the secret. Have more children and put them first before your stomach. Run back and forth countless times during the day keeping up with laundry, meals, potty trips, housecleaning, errands, and playtime. And go easy on yourself. It will take at least as long to get the weight off as it took to put it on. And if you don't get it off before your next pregnancy, don't despair. It will come off later because life with multiple kids is totally different than life with one.
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I didn't get my sewing machine out Tuesday night. I had a mountain of laundry to do. By the time I got it all washed, dried, and folded, it was 10pm and I was too tired to haul out the machine and start sewing. I knitted on Big Girl's hat instead.
Scott isn't impressed with the yarn I chose for her. He actually said, "It looks like something you got off a clearance table." Guess I won't tell him that each ball cost $9! And I won't be knitting him anything with nubs on it. He like monochromatic and earth tones. This is about as far from that as you can get.
Pictures coming soon!
