Thursday Thread #92

 

Today’s Thread is kind of a brain dump from my day today, so please bear with me. Hoping someone will be able to relate, sympathize, and laugh a bit!

 

I had a major mom fail today. Well, several. Let’s just say the entire first half of my day was one big fail.  It certainly isn’t my first and it most definitely won’t be my last, but it was a DOOZIE y’all. Bree had to go get some shots this morning and as we drove in during rush hour traffic, I got distracted and missed my exit. Aaarrrgghhh! It took forever to get turned around and make it to the doctor’s office, but I finally made it. Whew. After a short wait, I was ushered back into another waiting area. Bree started to get fussy and right before meltdown mode, a gentleman took us back to a room we hadn’t been in before. It was definitely not a ‘baby’ exam room, having a few sitting chairs and one of those ‘chair’ exam tables, NOT the table-like ones next to the wall that help contain crazy, mobile babies. The chair was in the middle of the room, completely open on all sides, and without any of the sanitary paper on it. No big deal, right? Bree was just getting shots so I could just keep her in her stroller until shot time, right? One would think….

 

After going over the shots Bree would be getting, I mentioned having her weighed while we were there too. Why not?? And that, folks, was my next fail. The nurse stepped out of the room so he could get the scale, and I looked around trying to find a flat place to undress her (no table, no sanitary paper, no clear surfaces). I finally sat Bree on the chair to strip her down (fail #3 — mobile baby on an exam chair is no bueno) and as soon as I pulled off her cute little striped pants, I noticed it. Poop. Everywhere. EVERYwhere. MAJOR diaper explosion. Gag!! Since there was no sanitary paper on the chair, I carefully juggled her as I reached for my changing pad to lay underneath her. I stripped of her nasty clothes and managed to avoid getting crap all over her (or me) while she attempted to barrel roll and flop around the chair. Small success! At this point, I’ll take it. Because as I reached into the wipes container to begin a BP-sized cleanup effort, I was horrified when realizing that I had but ONE measly wipe left. This was poopocalypse of 2014 and I had ONE wipe?!?!?! I could hear the nurse coming down the hall with the scale, so in my attempt to ‘keep it together’ and not be labeled as the most unprepared mom ever, I quickly used every last inch of that one measly wipe, as well as one of the clean diapers I had in my bag, and removed the dirty evidence. I tossed all of the poop-covered stuff into the wet bag we have for situations like these, just as the nurse rolled into the room.

 

16 lbs 8oz, three shots, and a lot of tears later (Bree, not me….), I was ready to get Bree dressed and head out. The nurse went to print a report for us as I set Bree back on the chair to dress her, leaving the door open. Hi, all of you other moms staring in at me, judging, as my kid screams from being placed on a cold scale and then stabbed three times. All I wanted to do was get the heck out of there, but another mom fail was in the cards for me when I went to dress a very angry Bree. Her previous outfit was obviously contaminated and all I had in my diaper bag was a pair of hot pink cords (tags still on!) and a beanie. That’s it. No socks, no shirt. BIG problem. At this point, it was all I could do to not totally break down, so I threw the pants and hat on Bree, covered her in a blanket, and strapped her into the carseat before the nurse returned with the report. I shut the cover to hide her (and all of my inadequacies) and left the doctor’s office as fast as I could, shamefully strolling my baby into the 48 degree chill 🙁  Thankfully, Babies R Us was across the street…

 

Bree managed to fall asleep in the 5 millisecond long trip to Babies R Us so I went through a drive-through and grabbed a cup of coffee to let her doze a bit before inevitably waking her while unloading her into her stroller and heading into the store for some fresh clothes. I really don’t know how long I sat in my parked car, staring out the window, sipping continuously on my coffee and feeling sorry for myself, but out of nowhere, a woman knocked on my window. She seemed normal-looking, so I rolled it down and smiled inquisitively at her. “Oh — so sorry!” she said, “I am meeting a friend here and I thought you were her!” I don’t know why, but I quickly felt the need to explain why I was sitting outside Babies R Us, staring like a crazy person in the direction of her car. “No problem at all! My kid is sleeping and I am just waiting a little bit before going inside and waking her. We had a BAD accident at the doctor’s office and need a new pair of clothes.” TMI, Chelsea, T-M-I!!! This lady didn’t care, she didn’t need to know why you were sitting there. She just mistook you for a friend she was meeting. Chill out and let her be.

 

The sweet lady didn’t run in the other direction or stare at me like I was losing my mind. She simply flashed a sympathetic smile and cheerfully said “Oh hun! I have some clothes you can have! You don’t need to go buy anything! What size is your girl? Or is he a boy? What age is your baby? I’ll see what I have.” I seriously couldn’t believe this lady. “I have a little girl. Seven months old yesterday,” I said softly. “But you really don’t have to! —  ” She ran to the back of her Jeep (fellow Jeep girl, woot woot!) and started shuffling through a bin of clothes. I got out of my car and found her pulling out all of the girly things that might fit Bree. “I don’t have any six-to-nine month stuff, but I have one six month shirt.  This one looks big; it might fit her. It’s clean, I was just going to take these clothes to donate.” She handed me a long-sleeve onesie that said I Love Auntie. It matched the hot pink cords perfectly, and immediately, my sister came to mind 🙂 She would’ve gotten a total kick out of all this.

 

I offered to pay for the onesie and the kind woman refused. Just then, her friend pulled up beside us.  Again, I felt the strong need to explain myself; I definitely didn’t want the friend to think I was trying to buy baby clothes out of the back of a Jeep like a gypsy. Maybe those were clothes she was coming to pick up? Maybe she was actually going to buy them? “Well so-and-so is just the sweetest lady. Seriously. One of the kindest people I know, always thinking of others.” I looked back at the Jeep and the woman just shrugged her shoulders and smiled modestly. I wanted to hug her so tightly and cry tears of gratitude, but I didn’t want to prove how crazy I actually was in that moment. So I said thank you a dozen times and jumped in the back seat to dress a half-naked Bree. The onesie fit like a glove and Bree smirked at me as I strapped her back into her seat.

 

I had so many failures today, but they were by my own measure. I didn’t have enough wipes, didn’t have a change of clothes, barely had enough diapers, and heck, I am JUST NOW getting to type the Thread. But through the kindness of another sweet mama (who had probably been in my shoes a time or two), the day worked out. I was so worried about how unprepared I was, and worse, what everyone would think of me; the women at the doctor’s office, the ladies outside Babies R Us, Bree! When really, who the heck cares? We’ve all been there, or we will be soon. The perfect, always-prepared, never late, kids-are-smiling-all-the-time moms just don’t exist. No matter how hard you try. The further I journey into motherhood, the more I realize that. The sweet mom who saw that I was frazzled, that I was struggling, didn’t judge me through her sticker-covered window. Nope. She extended a helping hand, one that [thankfully] was holding an I Love Auntie onesie. I have many more failures ahead, but I also have grace, and I have a whole world of empathizing mamas out there to help me when I am in need. One day, I so desperately hope to be able to pay it forward like she did.

 

On that note, here is the appropriately titled Thread Tune this week. And, proof in the form of an iPhone pic, for future recollection and [hopefully] some laughs…

 

I hope your day was better than mine! 🙂 Hugs…