Tag: motherhood
-
Why my children are eating ice pops at 6:30 AM
My daughter has a very good memory. Yesterday, when I was picking up my children from daycare, my son, for reasons still unclear to me, decided he wanted to sit in his sister’s car seat for the trip home. My daughter, a person of rule, order, and routine was offended to the point of tears…
-
Strong Force
There’s strong force, and then there’s the force by which cheap stickers adhere to inappropriate surfaces, like the inner edge of the toilet seat in the guest bathroom. Or the granite island and linoleum floor of our rental unit. I’m sitting here with a bottle of Goo Gone and a butter knife slowly peeling away…
-
The Hardest Thing I’ve Ever Done, Part I
We step into the kitchen and I put my discharge paperwork along with paper bags full of new medications, Paxlovid among them, on the island. My belly is 8 months heavy, and I’m exhausted. We (my baby and I) have just been released after an overnight stay at the hospital. It’s late Spring, 2022. I…
-
My Contribution
My son rests his head in tthe hollow where my arm meets my chest, as if it were made for him. As I kiss his forehead I feel the head radiating from his skull; he’s too warm. 103.2. My guess was off, only 101.4. No better than yesterday, I’m afraid. Worse, even. What will we…
-
The Lucky Ones
40 weeks Seems far too short to shield your body with mine. What I wouldn’t give to take from you every bullet Such that you could have every breath of mine As God and Nature intended it to be We cannot hide forever As much as my heart wants to You will not bloom if…
-
To parent, to sleep, to dream
I can do more make my daughter take a nap that I can yell at the rain and stop it from pouring. I could do it some parents do, which is throw their kid in a sparsely furnished dark room, turn off the lights, and close the door. I can’t do that for several reasons,…
-
Second shift
Across the screen float up semi-transparent strings in poor focus. Floaters. A consequence of myopic vision and likely tired eyes as I stare blankly at the last clinic note from today. Getting notes done is easier at clinic than at home- the monitors are wide, the keyboards are crisp, and at my right there’s a…
-
Of Pumping and Producing
After heating up a fresh bottle of formula, I prop the bottle up for my 6-month hold son to hold on the floor. With a slight adjustment, he’s successful, and I turn back to the task at hand. I’m a little embarrassed that I consider holding his own bottle to be a huge accomplishment, but…
-
Requiem of a dream in residency
I don’t know when exactly my dream died. Sometime I wonder if it was ever really my dream, or if it indeed *was* my dream, and my questioning it’s validity as a way for me to cope with its untimely death. Before marching to dermatology I had the audacity to wonder what it would be…
-
Short Sketches: Pantaloons
Now post motherhood (both of the cat and human variety) my ears are fine-tuned to pick up strange noises. Noises that say “something is amiss.” So when I hear a squelching noise to my right, I can wake up from a dead sleep and be ready to spring into action. Charms has had an upset…
Med-Derm, MD 