Parenting. Pandemic. Pregnancy. In that order. It’s the year 2020.
Parenting
Ghana, where I’m originally from, finding help is easy. There’s family, friends, and the ease of getting an affordable nanny. Living as an immigrant in Denmark, with a Danish husband, limits my help to an au pair, which isn’t cheap. So, raising two rambunctious boys (4 & 1) with my husband as my only help, is not a walk in the park. I hear my friends with help complain about not having any time to themselves or complaining about trifling matters and I just think ‘boo hoo hoo’. I know it’s a tough stance to take, but how are you complaining to me while having your mother, mother-in-law, siblings, cousins, nannies….. helping and still expect me to be sympathetic when I’m drowning with no raft in sight to keep me afloat. Sounds insensitive, but that’s the plain ol’ truth.
Parenting. Pandemic. Pregnancy.
Pandemic
With the sudden outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, parents had to figure out how to juggle working from home, for the most part, and tending to their kids, all at the same time. Doing that in a household of two working parents and two active small children is no mean feat. Wake up. Immediately give the children a bath and take one too. Ensure they wash hands every time they eat, touch an object or go out the main door. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. It isn’t an effortless task to get a one-year-old to wash his hands 20 times in a day. But we have had to unlearn old things and learn new things. We are living in a whole new world. Nothing is normal anymore.
Parenting. Pandemic. Pregnancy.
NEED ANY HELP WITH BABY SCHEDULES AND ROUTINES?
Pregnancy
Finding out about an unplanned pregnancy when your child just turned 10 months is …… a shock to say the least. My husband had always spoken about a vasectomy when he turned 50. I told him in no uncertain terms I wasn’t in favor and teased him endlessly about maybe trying one last time for a baby girl. I didn’t mean it. My first three pregnancies were hell. Losing my second child didn’t stop the morning sickness. I was still in the throes of it even after going in to have the medical evacuation procedure. The agony! First being told at 12 weeks that a heartbeat could not be detected. Having to wait a week for a slot in the theatre. And then STILL dealing with morning sickness even after the procedure.
Parenting. Pandemic. Pregnancy.
Pregnancy number 4. Whew! Constantly throwing up, with a baby on my hip each time I run to the bathroom. After a few times, my little Baby K started imitating the horrid sounds of my puking after each time I threw up. I was mortified. Meanwhile, darling D was asking why the baby in ‘his stomach’ didn’t throw up as much as the one in mine did. What have I done to both my boys!
Here’s to the next couple of months of lightheadedness, dizziness, fainting spells, the unbearable nausea and heaving, tiredness, dehydration, intravenous saline, mental breaks, communication hiatuses, …
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