20 months, 19 days

For Italo and I, the journey to parenthood was very intentional. We tried for more than 6 months to get pregnant with Annabelle and had lots of conversations prior to the "trying" about having babies. One of the things, I always thought of was staying up all night with a sick baby. Well, don't get me wrong, there have been lots of sleepless night since Annabelle was born because of one reason or another, but she has never thrown up...until Sunday night. I always thought that happened all the time with little kids, but we have been lucky to make it 20 months and 19 days with the worst part of baby explosions being diapers.

I awoke at 2:30 to hearing Annabelle crying and knew by the sound of the cry, it was different than her normal, I am awake and want company cry (which I always ignore). So, I got up to get her paci and try to get her to lay down until I realized that she has thrown up. So-up we go. I was trying to figure out if it was best to give her a bath or just wipe her down so she could go back to sleep. I decided sleep was more important for her, so I wiped her down, changed her clothes (Italo was stripping her bed down at this point) and brought her to bed with us. After she got into bed with us, she starting singing and talking and I knew she would not go to sleep. So, I found another sheet, laid her down and sat in her rocking chair while she tried to sleep. It id not take long before she lost it again. So, again, change her clothes, change her sheets and then wait for her to go to sleep. As we were more experienced this time, the procedure did not take as long so she went back to sleep pretty quickly.

As I sat in her room, listening to the wonderful noise of her sleeping and sucking on her paci, I was able to think about the joys of Mommyhood. And believe it or not, this one one of the moments that gave me joy. There truly was no other place I would have rather been at that moment. Don't get me wrong, I did not want Annabelle to be sick or hurting, but being able to be there to comfort, protect and help her when she was sick, was a joy I can not explain. As a working mom, there are lots of moments that I do not get to take part in, but in the middle of the night, no one needs me but her. And I love being able to give myself completely to her. I was so happy to sit next to her bed, waiting to make sure she would sleep soundly.

P.S. The next morning she lost her tummy again and I called my parents to see if the food I fed her the night before was possibly expired....Well, needless to say serving her food that expired 3 YEARS before she was born is not a good idea! Poor girl!