About Mommy Exhaustion

I am absolutely exhausted. A couple of months ago I went to my doctor about this problem, hoping I would come out with an easy fix: lose weight, take iron supplements (my whole Scottish family is iron/B12 deficient--a problem that plagues all Celtic descendants) and get a good night's sleep. So far, no dice. I could sleep away the better part of the day, everyday, if I allowed myself.

When I spoke to my doctor she kindly reminded me that I do have a year-and-a-half old boy. Ok, ok, I know I have a small child but it seems like other mothers are far more motivated and energetic than me. Perhaps they have a secret that I don't know about or maybe they're just all hopped up on drugs. The problem remains, I feel like I can drop dead at a moment's notice into permanent slumber.

Don't get me wrong, I love to entertain and play with my son. It's the highlight of every day. I just wish I had the energy I had before he was born. Funny how that all works out. You have the most energy before kids, and the least after. I wonder what the evolutionary significance of this is. Is it to make sure the elder of the species dies off from exhaustion so there's more food for the young? Do we use less oxygen, thus supplying more for the growing world population? I just don't understand the irony.

Today after dinner I took Xavier to Walmart to purchase his very own soccer ball. He's taken a great interest in kicking and running after balls, but all of his cheap play balls from the giant netted ball corral lose air a week after they're purchased. He chose a moderately priced soccer ball, white with black and red stripes. I tossed it in the cart along with a couple of water bottles, we paid, and we were on our way to Seacliff Park. Then the journey to exhaustion began.

Immediately after I took the ball out of the car, it rolled dangerously across the street, so that I had to precariously hold Xavier back while trying to fetch the ball before a car drove over it. I booted it into the park and Xavier ran gleefully after it, but stopped in mid stride to point out the various array of other "ba-balls" (balloons) across the way at the THREE different birthday party picnics occurring in the park. He abandoned the soccer ball along with all of my hopes for a kicking good time, for a cluster of multicoloured balloons that weren't his. I chased after him, new soccer ball in hand while he collected his rightful share of balloons from the closest birthday party. It's a good thing he's exceedingly cute, because everyone wants to give him a balloon anyway.

After he had a couple of tantrums while I was trying to pry him away from the party (picture me holding a kicking, screaming baby, a new soccer ball, a water bottle, and two balloons) we finally played with our new ball. We kicked and ran and kicked and ran until we covered the whole area of the park. I was pleased to see that he worked up a sweat too...tire the precious out...yes...we are trixy little mommieses we are...tire out the precious. The park was absolutely packed tonight with families trying to tire their children out with equal to greater effort than me. All in all, we played for two hours until I was finally able to coax Xavier back into the car to come home.

I walked in the front door just ready to drop, but I still had to bathe Xavier, brush his teeth and put him to bed. I was able to do all this with only a few routine objections from my son, but he went to bed wonderfully. I think he sensed I was about to collapse.

And so I finish this wondering if I will ever recover from this toddler energy drain. I'm off to bed. Tomorrow's schedule can start as early as 5 AM.

Madcap out.

PS - to all the mothers in the world, thank you for your sacrifice. Especially to my own mother: damn woman, how on earth did you raise two children? I guess love conquers all, even chronic fatigue.