The stomach bug cycle!

 

This past week was a rough week, to say the least. I hardly believe that today is actually Monday... And Saturday was my birthday, and it didn’t felt as birthday at all... On top of that a brand new and really busy week will be beginning tomorrow and I am not prepared at all for what is coming!

So what happened this past week exactly? 

The stomach bug cycle happened! And how does this cycle works...? Well, on a family of three, when one is taken ill, eventually everyone will be ill as well! The cycle began with my little one that was taken ill on Saturday last week.  And this stomach bug cycle had a heavy toll on me, as I had to look after him and miss work this whole week.... 

So, this cycle started with my little one on Saturday... continued with me on Wednesday... and on Saturday was my other half’s turn! While I recovered almost completely on Thursday, on Sunday my husband was still on a mend. The little man was sick for most of the week. So, during the weekend I was looking after both my little man and big man! 

And there goes my birthday...  cleaning up after my little man and my big man when they were sick... Those weren´t exactly memorable moments, for my first birthday as mum, I received as gifts a sick husband and a cranky baby! I can try to look on bright side. I was given the opportunity to sleep in until later (the little one only woke up around 11am, since he was waking up when unwell, basically every other hour), and the privilege of spending the whole day alone with my little cranky man (since my big man was in bed for the entire day trying to recover)....

And after this terrible week, I am having a major meeting on Tuesday, for which I am not prepared at all!  And this is another thing that I am just realizing.... Whenever you are the busiest and crammed with work, your little one will get sick. This also happened to me a couple of times....! Babies do have an uncanny sense of opportunity....

But I was promised a decent celebration next week! Let’s see if we are all fully recovered from this stomach bug cycle then!

Did you ever experience a stomach bug cycle?

I am linking up with this amazing blogger:

  

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Baby and me: What our outings usually entail, and how simpler my mornings used to be before cute baby boy in my life

This is a first instalment of a pre-motherhood and post-motherhood comic series....!
Today I am posting about my mornigs and outings....as my outings are so much different now! And here is a summary of just a few differences....
 

1.  I used to have time to get prepared before leaving. I used to have time to coordinate my bag with my shoes for heaven sakes! That’s how much time I used to have... And I used to have a wardrobe with clean clothes! With baby in my life it’s not uncommon to raid the laundry in search of a relatively clean t-shirt... I mean what´s wrong with a little spat in the shirt? The scarf will cover it (read more here).

2. Before baby, leaving the house just meant grab keys, mobile, and that was it! Now I have a huge checklist, all to do with baby related items... And not mentioning that baby sometimes just needs a nappy change right before leaving. No matter what the time of the day is....

But the toys, these are really important. Really, you don´t want a bored baby in the bus... At least 3 favourite toys need to be in hand... And may be extendable to your watch. And your mobile. And your scarf. And of course, not forgetting your hands.

3. Oh how simpler it used to be, walk to a bus stop. How you could use your time! Texting, making calls, the possibilities were endless... You could just enjoy the landscape. With baby, I am always doing something. Either clean his nose, or help with the water cup. Or catch toys. At least 124 times on the way there. Or catch the odd sock. Or the baby cup.  

4. And then you finally reached your destination. Our outings during the week generally end up in baby’s nursery, and then I go to work. Before it was just work. Now work time has a whole new meaning... Its also when I am just on my own. And not needing to do anything baby related. Its relax time/work time... 

But hey! I have the cutest baby in my life! And that makes it all worth it!

How about you, does your baby makes you pick up something 245 times on your walks?

How did you like the series idea? Let me know your thoughts, I would love to hear from you!

 

   

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Friday’s thoughts: On Daisy Lowe and the notion of studying later in life, when you have babies....

I posted some days ago about going to London. On the way back home, I was browsing the newspaper London´s  Evening Standard and I came across this interview with a young model, DaisyLowe, where she states that she´ll go back to education when she has kids.

You know that I am a recent mum... I am also a post-grad student... This means that I have to balance motherhood with my research and studies. Which is quite hard both emotionally and physically. And I am not even mentioning the current landscape were motherhood is discouraged in the work space (I wrote a bit about it here)....  And Daisy Lowe seems to think that will be easy to balance both, studying and having kids. I don´t know whether to think that she is a super woman or simply away from reality - I am afraid that it may be the latter. 
 
It’s not easy, far from it really; at least for me (again I will only mention my personal difficulties).  Moreover if you want to do both properly. 

In one hand, I do prefer to think that Daisy Lowe is contemplating this because she is empowered enough to think that is possible to balance both, and that being a mother does not mean that both professionally and academically your life is over. This is great really! To feel that you will be provided enough support, institutionally or more, so that both motherhood and your academically pursuits can co-exist. And again, I learned quite recently that mothers are more productive at work than their childless peers (read about it here). So this is not far from reality. 
But this is not the whole picture. 

She is also sending a message that it is alright not to study now. That you can do it once you have kids! It’s a message that states, well, once you have a baby, on your spare time you can study. But let’s face it, there’s no time to spare when you have a baby at home. There’s always something that you have to do, either get him to sleep, cleaning some spat, changing a diaper, feeding, and so on. And when there are no baby related chores left to do, there are the regular house chores that increase exponentially when your baby is in the equation! And that is without considering the exhaustion you feel afterwards. And then there’s your work, your studies to do. 

So, if you are given a choice you should study when you are young, and when you are kids free, more available. That’s when you can concentrate, dedicate yourself and focus properly on your studies. If you decide not to study and follow a modelling career that’s great to, it’s your choice, and your life. I certainly was not a modelling material, so that definitely was not a choice for me! But don´t go spreading the idea that you can study easily later in life, in your “kids free spare time”. Don’t misunderstand me; I am not claiming that it’s impossible to do so, as I am doing it! And so are hundreds of other mothers too, that not only are studying but also working. So of course it’s manageable. 

But far from easy, and most certainly really draining, both physically and emotionally.  Emotionally because I am constantly either missing my baby when away or plunged by guilt feelings. I feel that I am not being a proper mum, away from my little one! I am always thinking that I am missing important milestones, when at work. And this time that I am missing I will never get it back. Physically, because it is exhausting, there’s almost no time to rest, your free time is virtually non-existent. 

To be a mother and to keep on study is not a decision to be taken lightly. It requires strength, commitment and a lot of support (thank you so much, my other half!).  And unfortunately the institutional support is still far from perfect. There is much to be done in order to help mothers to continue their academic endeavours. I will write about my experience and thoughts on this some other time... 

But back to Daisy Lowe, as I said I would prefer to think that she was feeling empowered enough to consider this, or that it was even a career choice, going on modelling.  But no, and this was quite disappointing... What really made her decide not to pursue her studies now was....

.... to sleep in during the mornings... 

Oh Daisy, well, you certainly won’t have this once you have a family (more about this here)...! 

I am linking up with this amazing blogger: