Things I've learned as a mom...

Some women are football widows, meaning that once football is on, their husbands are physically there but mentally thousands of miles away. I love football as much as The Hubs, so I am a "Lost" widow. Not only do we lose The Hubs completely for an hour each week, we have to watch the poor tortured soul wander around, speculating and muttering about plot twists :). Today I overheard them say the date the plane crashed, which happened to be Monkey's birthday. When I pointed this out, The Hubs looked at Monkey with genuine envy...how lucky that Monkey gets to share part of the plot line!

Since Monkey is snoozing and The Hubs is trapped on a desert island in the middle of nowhere, it's given me some time to reflect on a few things I have learned as a mom:

• No matter how many books you read, nothing prepares you for motherhood. On the flip side, nothing feels better than when you can finally decipher a hungry cry from a tired cry and what makes them happy.
• When your child has reflux, NO shirt is safe. My winner was 5 shirts in one day. I felt like a human burp cloth, he seems to aim right where the burp cloth isn't.
• Baby boogers are the stickiest, most mystifying things I have ever seen. You try to wipe it from their nose or face but all you really accomplish is moving it around (much to their disapproval) until you finally give up and give them a bath...and then you find it on their leg.
• You think nothing is better than the day you see their first smile...until the day they smile AT you. That is worth everything (labor, c-section recovery, midnight feedings, and being a human burp cloth).
• Baby laughter is contagious.
  
• People tell me all the time how lucky I am to be a pediatric nurse as a first time mom. On some ways this is true, I like being able to listen to his lung sounds and know that he has a little cold rather than flipping out and thinking it's the beginnings of whooping cough. But in some ways, all you know about nursing goes out of your head when it's your own kiddo. And I have to admit that going back to work and seeing kids in less than ideal situations breaks my heart in a completely different way now.
• Sometimes you forget that you are actually a mom. When I took Monkey for his x-ray, the tech said, "Awhh, we're all done, you can pick him up Mom." I was like, "Who? Oh wait, that's me." I guess I will get used to it when someone (besides a very nice older woman) is calling me mom.
• Just when you don't think things could get any better...they do :).

Lost is over now, I must console The Hubs and listen to his take on what is happening...maybe I should be nice and find Cliff Notes so I can understand??