Parenthood: Living in the lack of luxury

This is me a few weeks ago and I am taking a selfie in my car. Why? Because I'm stuck. No, not because I'm safely buckled in while parked in my driveway…I'm stuck because my 18 month old son fell asleep in his carseat. You see, Liam (like most children his age from what I gather) likes to wait  until we get 2 minutes from home to fall asleep. As parents we know that Rule #1 is to never never never wake a sleeping baby. Nine times out of ten I definitely do not wake him up.

I feel like the phrase "what have I gotten myself into!?" runs through my mind at least once a day, if not 37 times a day. Somehow knowing that bringing a small human into the world would give rise to obvious work and care taking…but somewhere along this path to parenthood I failed to realize just how little I would be taking care of myself.

You see me in this photo? You see the bags under my eyes? You see me clutching my coffee mug? You see the dry shampoo!? No..that would be difficult to see. Anyway, it's bad. At least I have makeup on! You see, I've come the the conclusion that being a stay at home mother allows you to view the little things in life as luxuries. You know what I'm sayin', stay at home parents! It's the little things that really make your day special…and by little things, I mean normal everyday activities that suddenly you have no time for. After all, didn't we learn early on sacrifices need to be made? We simply cannot do it all.

So here are my top 5 Luxuries I'd like to share with you today. Please understand that this is my personal list and I am not saying that every SAHM feels or does things the same way as I do. But I'm quite sure that on some level you will relate to what I'm saying.

1. SHOWERS: Oh my goodness let me tell you…I do not shower as often as you'd like to think I do. When I take a shower I'm like "oh man…alone time…while getting clean..BONUS!" It has gotten better though. I remember a time when I'd take a shower and find myself questioning just when was the last time I took a shower?! It was madness, and can still be for sure, but it makes the shower feel like a sacred place of prayer. Please…let me get through (X amount of time) before I have the opportunity to take another blessed shower.
2. BRUSHING YOUR TEETH: Oh I'm sorry…are you grossed out yet? HA-HA well guess what?…I don't have time to brush my teeth when it's either brush my teeth or make & drink coffee. Coffee breath isn't that bad, right? Oh who am I kidding…I'm too tired and stinky to know if I'm making sense. Oh and P.S….I guarantee you'd rather be talking to my stinky self instead of my tired and cranky self. I'MJUSTSAYIN'
3. COSMETICS AND PRETTINESS: Putting on make up is like a marked holiday on the calendar…you are like "oh today is that day!? awesome!" but then the celebration is over and next thing you know it's 11:15 p.m. and now you're all "ooohh man…now I need to wash this stuff off but I'm so tiiiiiirrreddddd (from staying up way too late watching New Girl)". It was nice when I had the time to make myself presentable to the world…it was so nice.
4. GETTING DRESSED: At almost 2 years after the birth of Liam I am finally starting to get a grip on this whole "putting on an outfit" ritual I used to know how to do so very well. (ok not that well). Now it's like…."Oh I'll put on real pants and a shirt…wait…can I breastfeed in this shirt? (are my boobs easily accessible…weird thing to think and not at all in the sexy way) yes? no? crap…better put on this v-neck and or tank top!" So yeah…tank top and jeans / stretchy pants…wow wee I'm a fashionista. Not. *cries*
5. SLEEPING (BONUS IF IT'S ALONE): I think it's no great mystery that the thing you lose the fastest (2nd being your dignity) is sleep. In fact, David came over while I was typing this section and said, "I remember when sleeping in meant sleeping past 7:30 a.m.".  It's true, sleep really becomes something one can only dream about doing…except you can't dream, because you're never really asleep. I know there are some of you who have the amazing child that sleeps 9 hours at 3 months and it never really got "bad". (oh I'm sure they make up for this in some other category and P.S., I'm not trying to sound snarky, I genuinely envy you and wish you all of the high fives and ♥) But for most of us, this part of parenthood is a struggle.   **Although I will say that last night Liam slept from 9:30p.m.-5:00a.m. and it was amazing!! It was like Field of Dreams…if you build it, they will come! Except all I did was write (and hope) and for some reason he slept…I have no idea why.

The thing is, you just gotta go with it. Parenthood is a journey you really can't control, you can't "do it all" and the truth is, being a parent really has opened my eyes to just how wonderful the little things are.   When you don't have time to do all of the things you took for granted before, you feel totally awesome when you can successfully accomplish three of the listed items above. 

And maybe Liam sleeping for 8 hours last night was a friendly reminder that this too shall pass. Nothing stays the same. Even if you want to pull your hair out because your babe will only sleep stacked on top of you…one day he won't be so small, and you'll have all the time in the world to dream about the wonderful (sometimes restless) times you shared.

What are some of your parenthood luxuries? Happy Wednesday!