I am in the hurricane of hormones that blow through a woman’s body following birth. One moment I feel flat and low, the next I am tearing up with the most tiny provocation of tenderness and care. I feel myself bracing internally for the foreboding approaching storm of anxiety with every early sunset. I don’t want to eat which is remarkably abnormal for me. And most of the time, I just want to run away.
I recognize this is just a season, like hurricane season. It will go away over time; hopefully sooner rather than later. So I catch myself feeling surprised when I hear myself laugh, I mean really laugh.
One day, Ivan and I were driving the long drive south to Evanston talking and sharing vulnerably with one another and, of course, I was crying. Ivan’s cell phone buzzes with a text message and this is what it says, “I hear your family dinged! Congratulations!” In World of Warcraft, when you gain a level you shout out to the guild or the city community you are in with a “ding”. And everyone knows that you just bumped up one level. So when we go this text it just made me giggle and giggle and giggle. It is true, our family has dinged with the addition of little Scarlet. Jeremiah, thanks for making me giggle with your cute little text.
Today, Audrey is looking super intently at my face, inspecting my nose and all of a sudden she says to me, “Mommy, you have spider webs in your nose.” And then she proceeds to do her silly swatting bug motion and says, “Go away, bug!” Never had my boogers described as spider webs before. Sure made me laugh aloud.
Audrey has discovered the Madagascar movies after going to the theatre with my mom right after Scarlet was born. I ended up buying the first movie on DVD and she loves it and can’t stop talking about it. But you should see her dance and sing the song, “I like to move it, move it!” Hysterical. She has become quite the little singer.
Um, that is the only 3 funny things I can think of right now…I need more funnies.
As an oncology nurse, I always preach that the way we get through it is to sing, laugh and dance. And I think that is true for postpartum days as well.