Keepin' It Real

I've only been a mother for almost 4 years.  One thing I learned very quickly is that motherhood & worry seem to go hand in hand.  For me, it started with my pregnancy with Jack & I'm very prepared for my children to be in their 50s & still be worrying about them in my 70s & 80s.

I was convinced everything under the sun was wrong with Jack.  He had very good head control from birth, so, of course he had stiff neck syndrome (yes, that is real!).  I thought he was autistic countless times.  Epilepsy- check (of course, this one was confirmed by EEG & neurologist- however on the day of that confirmation the seizures stopped with no meds or intervention- God's extreme kindness to our family).  Perhaps my silliest conclusion was when Jack was 6 or 7 months old & I thought he was deaf.  Yes, deaf.  I would walk around the house sneaking up on him & clapping my hands behind his head just to see if I could scare him.  I even woke him up from his nap once by yelling his name in his ear.  Nope- not deaf, just psycho, worrying mother on the loose.

With Annie I think I've been worrying a little less.  However, my mind has been obsessed with Rett Syndrome.  My sister-in-law's cousin has this & I also ran across a blog not too long ago of a woman with a daughter with Rett Syndrome.  It's a devastating disease & strikes girls almost exclusively.  You don't know they have it for a while because they develop normally & then start to lose skills.  

So, a while ago Annie rolled over from her belly to her back for the first time.  She did this several times, but until yesterday (when she did it just one time) hadn't done it for a while.  Instead of rolling over, she prefers to scream bloody murder until I roll her back over onto her back.  Being the calm, rational person that I am, I start thinking, oh, no!!  She's losing skills.  She's regressing!  Something, of course, is terribly wrong with my baby!

I was sharing this with a friend who just stared at me & said, "Andi, she's fat.  It's hard to roll over with that much junk in your trunk."

If you've seen Annie lately, you can confirm that she is, indeed, quite the chunk.  She's robust.  Not only does she have junk in her trunk, but a beer belly, thunder thighs & cankles.  Perhaps she's just figured out instead of working hard to roll over it's easy, and more fun, to scream at her mother.  

I know it's normal to worry about our children.  I know I won't ever stop, but it's always good to have friends to bring you back to earth.  So, thanks Melanie, for keepin' it real.