“Those broken nights, how did I last?”
Mariëtte Middelbeek is a journalist and author, and a columnist for Kek Mama. She and her husband Erik have two children: son Casper and daughter Nora.
It was the middle of the night and I was reeling through our house with a creature beeping in my arms and question marks in my eyes. What do you want? Why are not you sleeping? Are you hungry? Pain? Anything else I haven’t thought of at all?
maternity time
No, we don’t have a third child. At least not a baby. But it does feel like we’re back into full maternity since we picked up our furry four-legged baby Teddy a week ago. He is nine weeks old, a Jack Russell terrier and as stubborn as he is cute. And immediately I realized that from the maternity period of the children I have a kind of romanticized image of cute babies that are so sweetly sniffing your neck and smelling like Zwitsal, but now I remember what it really was like. Those nights. How did I keep that up?
The constant planning: if I take a shower now it will beep so I better wait, but for how long? Or: I actually have to pee but when I get up he wakes up. The eternal dilemma: use the naps for work, household or refuel? The thought: and why did I want this again? And also: the migration during a family visit. Then: diaper bag, pram, bouncer and oh yes, forgot the pacifier. Now: bench, leash, chunks, toys and oh yes, forgot a bone. And I haven’t even mentioned parenting yet, because a puppy is a baby and toddler in one, who is up half the night but just as well eats the dried flowers.
Also read – This mother has doubts about a pet: ‘They drool and shed, but are good for education’ >
baby happiness
But. The comparison is valid in several respects. Such as: the happiness of such a small creature in the house, the loving looks with which Erik and I look at him in the evening when he is lying on our lap (“He’s so sweet, isn’t he, when he sleeps”, we already sighed, just like a week after Casper’s birth), the hundreds of photos on my phone. And, unlike then, the two children with whom we can share our baby happiness. Now just to get rid of those nights. In my romanticized picture of the maternity period, that lasted four weeks. Actually two years.
This article can be found in Kek Mama 06-2022.
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