Gosh, I guess once a year seems about right for a blog. What? You post every day. You get the gold star. I am busy. Or at least I am not busy with this. Wait, what?
So, we had a baby. We had a boy (surprise - not really). He is wonderful and funny and sweet and all the things little babies are supposed to be. Except he is not a little baby anymore. In less than two weeks he will be one. ONE! I cannot take it. He was supposed to stay tiny (OK, small) and a sweet sleepy baby forever. Nope. Already he is a trouble maker. He is such a mini me for the two older ones. He looks like one and still yet reminds me of the other. It will be fun to see how he follows.
I have been having some trouble dealing with certain aspects of this last pregnancy and birth. I am not sure how to get over it. I was thinking maybe writing it all down would help get it out of my head. Now, by no means do I dwell on this every day all day. I do think of it once in a while and it makes me sad. Occasionally, I will cry, but most of the time I think of it and go about my day.
No one threw me a baby shower.
That's it. That is the big sadness. If you are reading this you might think I am nuts to dwell on this. Who cares says you? I care, says I. Here is why. When a woman is pregnant she is in a special phase that doesn't happen to everyone all that often. So people treat said woman special. They make her comfortable, they fetch her drinks and snacks or a puke bucket. They encourage her, they tell stories and ask to hear the name list. People help her decorate her precious bundles nursery and buy her gifts to show their love. They also, throw her a shower. They shower her, her baby and husband with cake, attention and love. They show her just how special she is to carry a baby, to have a child.
So what does it mean to me to not have a shower. After all, this was baby number 3. Isn't there a minimum amount of time and effort one would spend on baby number 3? What if it was baby number 9? Surely, you just high five her in the hall and that's good enough, right? No. It means to me that I do not have close friends. It means that of all the people in my life in some way, none of them are close enough or care enough to do this for me. I know women that have had more than one child and a shower for each. Even just a small gathering for appetizers and gifts. I got nothing. No one offered. No one even asked me if I was having a shower. (As a side note, I found out after the fact that someone told husband they would help with a shower, though no offer to actually host or have one). No one even high fived me in the hall. I know I am not close with very many people, but I though I mattered at least a little or enough for a baby shower. After all my kids were 5 and 7. We had given away and sold almost all of our baby stuff. We had a crib and not much else. There was plenty to help with. It's not even about the gifts. It truly is about no one caring for me.
OK. So what? I had my baby and he was precious. I had an emergency C-Section. My baby was in danger, but turned out OK. We had a total of four (4) friend visitors. Two sisters came, one niece, one nephew and one brother in law and my mom. Once. They all came once except my mom who ended up watching my kids and came a few times. However, she left town the day after I arrived home from the hospital. Glad I was so busy throwing up, recovering from surgery and crying over my dying father to worry about friends coming to visit. Some of our "friends" didn't even come until he was a month old. Gifts? Some. Not many though. Our neighbors brought us new baby clothes and I am not sure I know their last name. I do, but you see my point? One couple brought a meal and that was great, but we already had meals coming from church and they sort of just came over and didn't really make a plan.
Some folks from church arranged meals for us. That was great and very helpful. I did hear the person comment later how hard it was and how they didn't want to do it. Um. Wow. Thanks. My dad died 13 days after my son was born. Someone at church thought they should keep doing meals and wanted it to start up again. It did for a few days and that was a nice gesture. By then I was done. Oh congratulations and I'm so sorry. Thank you? Maybe my hormones made it more awkward than it really was.
My baby is almost one year old and no one at church has asked me to hold him. Ever. Most people seemed to wait until I gave him to husband and then husband handed him off. Was I some sort of baby ogre? In my head I cared for him since no one else seemed to be offering.
So now, he is almost one and I want to have a little party. My family will come. I was looking at pictures from the parties of the older boys and our friends are there. So I thought we should invite them too. I also think that if they could not be bothered to come see him at his birth or celebrate him in the womb then why would they come celebrate his one year birthday?
So now I am nine paragraphs in and the sadness is coming over me as I remember being so hurt and still being hurt by this. I want to celebrate my kids and I want to have people around me celebrating them too. It really stings that I do not have those people. That I do not matter
