The Road to Mommyhood

Ahh, Mother’s Day! My cellphone has been beeping all day, and my inbox is almost full. Friends who have fallen into the New Year-Valentine-Easter-Birthday-Christmas routine have found another way to announce their presence in my life. I now get Mother’s Day messages, too.

My daughter, the reason for my initiation into the wonderful world of Disney, diapers and soggy french fries, is oblivious to the fanfare. She did mouth a sweet “Happy Mothey’s Day” earlier. But if I thought that I wouldn’t have to deal with the terrible-twos tantrums, I thought wrong. All through the day (and night), the house echoed with her “mama-mama-mama-mama only” demands. I have tried just about every trick in the book and beyond to calm her down. She is now asleep, peacefully sucking on her binky.

Two years and two months into mommyhood, and I have learned that there is no such thing as by-the-book parenting. Everything is a work in progress, an endless learning experience. I guess it’s really true: giving birth is the easier part. (In my case, I had to undergo emergency C-Section because I was already fully dilated but I couldn’t feel a thing.)

My first taste of the “maternal” headaches came the next day, when the baby had a bad case of colic. She bawled from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m., and the panicky hubby had to make a lot of trips down to the ER to persuade the medic on duty to please, please, please take a look at the baby. The solution came in the form of this greenish oily substance that the midwife told us to apply on the baby’s tummy. Thank heavens for aceite de manzanilla! (At about the same time, I was battling my own internal “demon:” an only-in-my-head endless rendition of “La Chupeta.” It turned out that my sister, who volunteered to do yaya duty while I was still sedated, kept playing her ring tone to pacify the baby. For three or four days, I couldn’t get “La Chupeta” off my mind.)

Since then, hubby and I have breezed through other parenting challenges. Some answers have been supplied by Dr. Spock, others by well-meaning relatives. Still some we figured out on our own. The challenges will be here for a long long time, so we might as well take things easy.

Meanwhile, I look forward to more Mother’s Days, if only to wake up to a butt on my face coupled with the sweetest smile ever. Happy Mother's Day!!!