Being a parent is more than a name on a birth certificate…

I struggle as a single mom, do I love him enough, do I feed him the right foods, give him enough attention, and mostly is he happy. I struggle with Cameron’s dad in (and out) of his life. I get so frustrated, today was one of those days so out of my head came this…

Being a parent is more than a name on a birth certificate…

Being a parent means getting up at all hours because someone wet the bed, had a bad dream, can’t sleep, wants water, dropped a toy, needs a bottle, needs a diaper, and then repeating one hour later.

Being a parent means putting someone else before yourself, your time, your plans, your wants, your meals, your dreams, your job, your friends, your sanity, your sleep, and then smiling about it.

Being a parent means learning to let go, of a bike without training wheels, of a toddlers hand the first day of preschool, then kindergarten, of plans you make, and of your heart every time they walk out the door.

Being a parent means learning to say, no, yes, put that back, put that down, is it bleeding? Get that out of your mouth, because I said so, STOP, don’t pull on the dog, get down from there, hurry up, slow down and I love you sometimes all in the same sentence.

Being a parent means being barfed on, bitten, pooped on, hugged, kissed, ignored, the good guy, the bad guy, annoyed, loved, hated, yelled at,  a friend, an enemy and exhausted all before lunch.

Being a parent means you will always be broke, tired, worried, proud, stressed, someone’s hero, have a new appreciation for your own parents, late, watching Disney channel, and loved mostly in the same breathe.

Being a parent means never having time, the right toy, the cool clothes, money, enough diapers, the body you did BEFORE the baby, you time, date night although you are ok with it.

Being a parent means changing your shirt 4 times a day, their shirt 6 times a day, the music you like, the plans you try to make, to a family car, your mind, their minds, your outlook on life, but you also finally realize change is good.

Being a parent means learning to drive while you feed a baby, change a DVD, talk on a phone, eat, swat at the back seat, change a diaper, juggle a carpool, look around for a lost toy, and avoid backing over a bicycle all from the seat of an SUV with stick people on the back window.

Being a parent means never missing a recital, a game, a play, a first day of school, a doctor’s appointment,  a first step, a bedtime story, a game of catch, a hug and kiss,  a tea party because these are sacred events.

Being a parent means giving up your body, your heart, your sanity, your last bite, your side of the bed, your car keys, your peacefulness, your sleep, your financial security, without a second thought.

Being a parent means explaining to your boss what that stain on your suit is, where babies come from, Santa Clause and the Easter bunny, God, why the goldfish is swimming upside down,  why you can’t paint the cat and doing it all with a smile on your face.

The Eraser

It all started with a phone call, “This  is nurse Sue from school, Cameron was complaining of an ear ache and it appears after looking that he has an eraser stuck in there. “ At the time I was waiting on my car to get inspected so I told her I would be there soon. When I picked him up I could see sure enough right there in his ear a hot pink pencil eraser lodged halfway down his ear canal.

At first look I think no big deal I should be able to get this out with a pair of tweezers.  SO we head home and I play doctor. Cameron laying on my bed and me poking at the eraser was NOT working and when I finally claimed defeat the eraser was much further in than it started. I decided this situation needed professionals. So we loaded up and headed to Cam’s primary care doctor. At first Cameron took it like a sport, that is until it was time to stick the sharp succors in his ear, at that point my kid lost his shit. He was screaming as if we were killing him and attracted all the nurses and doctors on our wing. 5 Grown men and I were trying to hold him down as the doctor tried to get the eraser. No luck, again the eraser seemed to be getting deeper. We were told there was nothing more they could do we needed to head to an ENT.

The earliest appointment for the ENT was 2 hours away which was good it took me the full two hours to calm Cameron down, in the car he continued to scream for a solid 45 mins. Finally we arrive at the ENT, we had seen this doctor when Cameron was one and had tubes put in his ears. So the Doctor tried in vain to look at Cam’s ear but after what he had already gone through Cameron didn’t want anyone touching his ear. After two attempts resulting in the eraser moving even deeper, the doctor said it looked like we were going to need to do this with Cameron under general anesthesia. SO an appointment was made for two days later at the hospital.

Living with a 5 year old test my patience on the best of days, living with a 5 year old who has an eraser stuck in his ear is unbearable. Due to all the attempts to get the eraser out it was now so far down you couldn’t see it anymore and it sat against his ear drum, causing great pain, pain which he reminded me about every 30 seconds. Somehow we made it through two days with the eraser; he survived school like a champ and saved the whining for at home with mommy.

Finally the day of surgery came, to add insult to injury; we had to report to the hospital at 5:30 am. Neither of us were happy campers. After checking in they gave him a liquid sedative. I must say if you every have the chance to see your kid strung out on sedative I highly recommend it. It was FUNNY! He would stick he foot under the blanket and freak out “mommy where is my foot?” Or stick his arm out the side of the bed and laugh at it. He sat there with his tongue stuck out. It was very amusing.

Finally the time came for them to take him back. This is where mommy lost it, he wanted me to go and as soon as he realized I wasn’t he started crying which broke my heart. I walked with them to the operating room. It’s hard to watch your whole heart wheel through those big doors. I went to wait in the waiting room.

It didn’t take long for my patient pager to go off that the doctor was ready to talk to me; he walked out with the eraser in a small jar for safe keeping. He said it was about as deep as it could go, but they got it out just by stretching his ear no cutting. What a relief! The doctor said I could see him shortly. Sure enough the pager went off again and I was taken to his room in recovery. To say he was out of it was an understatement. The only sign of life were the machines he was hooked up to.

 



So I sat and waited for him to come around. After about 20mins it was obvious he wasn’t waking up anytime soon and this mommy was ready to get out of there. So I picked him up dressed him, shook him around enough to get him to drink some juice and then he started to wake up. We were discharged around 8:15, eraser in hand (not ear). We went home and crashed after no sleep for two nights and waking up at 4 we were both tired.

I do believe Cameron has learned his lesson and there will be nothing else stuck into his ears!