The Messiness of Motherhood

I'm eight weeks in to being a new mom again and I'm reminded how messy motherhood can be.

Let's start at the beginning...

First you get pregnant and sweaty and nauseous. By the end of pregnancy, many women are wearing pantiliners to feel fresh (and some do this the whole time, some even bleed during pregnancy).

The baby is born and thus we enter another phase of messiness. First off, there are the baby messes. This includes dirty diapers, wet diapers, constant spit-up, projectile spit-up, projectile urine during diaper changes, and much more. Secondly (and perhaps often overlooked) are the mommy messes. After giving birth, women bleed for several weeks (making up for all those wonderful period-free months). Breastfeeding mothers experience lots of milk leaking from their breasts. Not only are these things messy and disgusting, but they require a lot of tending to and also a lot of trash. Think of all the pads that are used during this time and with each one, you have the pad itself, the wrapper, and the strips that adhere them. For nursing moms, most will wear breast pads to help control disgusting wet spots on the front of their shirts. You either use disposable ones (lots of trash) or reusable ones (lots of laundry). For all babies, there are lots of diapers. Again, you either use disposable ones (lots of trash) or reusable ones (lots of laundry). Have you ever thought about the impact on the environment of having a baby??

As baby gets a little older, we start developing the toddler drippy noses, skinned knees, and mushy messy baby food. Later it becomes dirty sports uniforms, stomach flus, and spilled juice. I could go into a lot more detail about each stage but you get the point... No matter how neat and clean of a person you are, the job of mother is anything but glamorous and anything but clean. Inevitably you will experience spills on your favorite couch, a few crushed Cheerios in your car, and spit-up on your dry-clean only blouse. While these things are anything but pleasant, it's just part of the game, and well worth it for that beautiful smile and "I love you" that comes every now and again (but never frequently enough!) After all, it's the little things...