The truth about Motherhood

I have been saying that I want to write a book with the above listed title for awhile now. I really don’t think I am a strong enough writer to turn my thoughts into a book so I will talk about it here.

If you are one of these moms that has perfect children, thinks motherhood is the easiest and most beautiful thing in the world and you have a child that came out of you floating on clouds from your un-drugged body then STOP READING NOW! Also if your child was potty trained, sleeping in a toddler bed and could read at 12 months, you are also not the kind of person that should continue reading.

So, I want to talk about the truth, the good the bad and the ugly and the truth the motherhood is hard! Here is my DISCLAIMER: I love my children very much and cannot imagine my life with out them, keep that in mind as you read.

I really should not have to put a disclaimer that I love my children before I talk about the challenges of being a mom but unfortunately our society is full of mom shaming for people that say anything negative when it comes to their children or parenting. It is kind of like an unspoken thing that we as moms are no supposed to tell other moms that this is hard and we are struggling. Instead, we compete and brag about how great our children are. I think it is time for change…I think instead of competing against each other, we should group together and talk about our challenges and maybe even find like minded people who can help you through tough times or maybe even give a little perspective to help you in a time of need or unknowing.

So here it goes, being a mom is hard…probably the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. You literally have never experienced the emotions that you will experience as a mom, good and bad. I have never felt this level of love, frustration, anger, pride…and the list goes on. They told me about 100 times in the hospital that if I am ever very frustrated, walk away and leave a crying baby (in a safe place of course like their crib) and there is a reason. You will honestly get to a point of pure exhaustion/tiredness/frustration that you really cant take anymore and you need to walk away and gather yourself. For me, this was more common in the infant stage. Even today with toddlers, sometimes I pretend like a am pooping to get 5 minutes to myself but typically my 3 year olds come find me and ruin my few minutes of peace. It is ok to want time away from your kids, as a matter of fact I think it makes for a more healthy environment for everybody. Without help, we don’t take many date nights but me and my spouse are very supportive of each other going out with friends to have some time alone and I really encourage this. For the first year, I did not really leave the twins and I think this help contribute to my depression and loneliness.

There are many days that I have cried myself to sleep and just been so overwhelmed mentally, physically and emotionally. Sometimes on these days, our little ones will say something heartwarming like “I love you mommy” and you feel guilty for being so frustrated or yelling at them but that is life with kids. My husband helps a lot but another truth that nobody talks about is that moms do more. This is probably not applicable to single dads and some other people but for the most part, I feel like I do it all. Like I said, my husband does a lot but moms are like super people that balance it all. This is my day…wake up at 5AM, exercise for an hour, get ready for work, get the kids up, feed them, make sure they are fed and clean, take them to daycare, go to work, get off of work, go get the kids from daycare, bring the kids home, try to cook dinner and do laundry and clean the house while trying as hard as I can to keep the kids under control without just plopping them in front of the TV, clean up dishes, give the kids a bath, get them ready for bed, put them to bed.  I also care for them myself on Saturday as my husband works and the one day that my husband can get up and get them, he magically never hears them. I know he works outdoors in Arizona which is not easy and he only has one day off but I would just like ONE day that I don’t have to get the kids out of bed and I have recently brought this to his attention. Oh and on top of all of that, I do all the bills, keep track of all the bank and investment accounts, schedule all doctors appointments, grocery shop, ensure that the house is stocked with toilet paper, laundry detergent, etc. and the list goes on. For those single parents, I applaud you… I really don’t know how you do it because I have help and I still feel overwhelmed.

I think social media also perpetuates the image that motherhood is all beauty and no challenge. I am part of that statistic, I looked at my IG feed, out of 1119 posts I could find 6 pictures that could be called a more realistic image of motherhood…

So, lets talk more about the joys and the challenges and of being a mom. Let’s work with each other instead of competing against each other. Only other mothers can truly understand the array of emotions that we feel so let’s build a mommy army and start talking about the truth about motherhood.

XOXO- telling it like it is twin mom

The invisible illness

So I have not gone for my daily walk today which means my mind has not had a chance to write and rewrite this article and I have chosen a very deep topic that I will talk about more throughout my experience but would like to break the ice as I don’t think we as a society talk about it enough, depression. The actual dictionary definition is

feelings of severe despondency and dejection.

Anybody who has struggled with depression probably finds this definition a little weak. Just so you know, I was on the other side of this before I had the twins I truly believed that those people that said they were depressed just wanted attention and felt sorry for themselves, I just want to keep myself honest. I mean I had bad days at work or would get mad because the scale did not say the number I wanted but I never suffered from depression. So where did it start? Well my children were born at 32 weeks so they were premature and had severe health complications which we will talk about another time but for the thirty days that they lived in the hospital there were literally days that we did not know if they were going to make it then WAM! they are healthy, awesome but what is a new mom to do with tiny little 4 pound babies, I just went through the most difficult time in my life and now you hand me two little babies to take home and take care of and OH it is hard! I remember thinking that I could handle it because I am Kalina the overachiever and I can handle anything, wrong! New babies don’t sleep through the night, they wake up every 2-3 hours to eat and if you are breastfeeding that means you have to be there for them to eat. On top of breastfeeding, the hospital told me to pump every 2-3 hours to make my supply increase so that meant for me that I would feed the babies when they woke up which took about 45 minutes then pump for another 30 minutes,  clean the supplies and guess what… they were awake again for another round. To say the least, I did not sleep for a long time and thank God I had a husband that helped a lot. After weeks of not sleeping your mind starts to go a little haywire and I started feeling very down which is normal…we call this baby blues or post partum depression. The problem is that my baby blues never went away and got worse. I remember the moment I knew something was serious, I told my husband “do you ever wish that you would not wake up the next day?” He was freaked out and got me every pamphlet from our baby supplies with hotline numbers. I did not call for a few days and when I decided to call they did not answer the phone or were not open…great resources for a depressed person which I will get more into another time. So, I went to my OBGYN and told them how I was feeling and what did they have for me, DRUGS! My choices were limited because I was breastfeeding so they put my on something called Paxil…ok sounds good, wrong! Maybe this drug has worked for other people but it did not work for me. Depression medications do things to your brain functions so they should not be taken lightly (obviously I am not a doctor) but I am speaking from my experience. Well after about a week on this medication I had never felt more un-normal. I literally did not sleep for that week even when I had the opportunity and felt like I was going crazy and felt very very down. I quit this drug cold turkey, not recommended by my doctor but I knew it was not good for me. I continued to breast feed and made a choice at 6 months to stop because I needed to explore other medications that could help me and I knew then that I really needed help. I talked again to my OBGYN and they gave me Prozac which seemed to work better for me, it did not make me feel crazy anyway. So to make a long story short I went back to work but still struggled from this beast that I call depression, I just was not myself. People who have not gone through this do not understand and that makes it harder. I have a very close friend that I worked with who I showed the attached picture to because I saw it on social media and thought it was a good representation of depression. My friend, who I adore, laughed and said “so you want me to build you a tent” and made a joke of it. She never knew this but I was crushed, I went into the bathroom and cried because I just wanted the person I was closest to and interacted the most with in the day to try to understand me instead of telling me which is very common “its fine, it will be better tomorrow.” which brings me to the point I want to reiterate, to a depressed person things are not fine, they may not even be able to see tomorrow so don’t say that it will be better tomorrow. Being that I have been on the other side of this, I understand how it is hard to understand and deal with at times but google “how to help a depressed person” there are actually a lot of resources. So what do I want to come of this, I hope that sharing this deeply personal story helps people that may not recognize the signs. I also want change to happen to have more resources for people who are depressed. I have a very close relationship with the March of Dimes Director in Tucson and have considered trying to talk to her about starting a program for moms that stayed in the NICU and had traumatic experiences, maybe a follow up from a nurse that really understands depression because the hotlines that did not answer the phone scare me. I was not at the point of considering harming myself but there are people that are and what if they don’t answer the phone when they call??? So, today where am I? I stopped taking depression medication about 6 months ago and I see somebody to talk to every couple of weeks. You could say I am better but unfortunately I feel like there is always this gray cloud just waiting to move in. I don’t want to battle this, I want to be the best person that I can for my children so I am doing things that help me like exercise, clean eating, venting in this forum which is a way of self expression for me and I hope to one day say that I never battle with depression and until that day I will do everything in my power to be my best self for myself and the people I love. Slowly but surely I am getting there.

PS- If you saw me on the street you would never know that I have this struggle, I am very put together, have a beautiful family and a nice home, great job, etc… it is not a stereotype and can effect anybody, please remember that.

XOXO- Trying to be better twin mom