You know they say that woman is naturally gifted with the ability to do several things at the same time i.e. multi tasking. Let that be cooking dinner while talking on the phone (and not burning the food, that is..), putting on mascara while driving (some women can do it apparently..), or in my case now, taking care of my son while doing other things around the house like doing laundry, making lunch, ironing, cleaning and the list goes. You might think this is not such a hard work since as I said before, we, the women, are already ‘blessed’ by the power to do several things instantly. But as I experienced it, it was not as easy as I thought, especially when the baby cries or when he moves his body so much while you have him in your arm that it was impossible to divide your attention to something else other than to him.
As I am in my 5th going 6th week of being a mother, I learn more that there are reasons why my baby wants my attention. As a friend rightly pointed out, my little one is too small to think that he should ‘annoy’ me for fun, for example by screaming for no reason. There are days though where I do get annoyed. I blamed them on the lack of food, sleep and rest, and I do feel terrible afterwards for feeling that my little one is trying to test my limit to the very end. I am learning to always be patient, which is hard sometime when you have already tried all the possible things to make your baby content by feeding, washing, changing, singing, carrying him in your arms for hours no end, but yet he still cries and screams.
For the past two days I was struck by high fever. My midwife ordered full bed rest so that I can recover faster. This was of course a wonderful suggestion, as I secretly (or not) longing for a longer time lying in bed (who doesn’t?). But as a mother there are certain things that you have to do, regardless whether you are busy or not, sick or healthy. So, while having myself a cold compress I was having him on my left arm so that he could drink and at the same time using my right arm and hand to do other things like drinking water, taking pain killer, sending text messages, calling people on the phone, and again the list goes.
My multi tasking ‘ability’ is really nothing in comparison to so many women in other parts of the world. Many women in Africa and Asia for example have to carry their babies all day while working on corn or rice fields, or carry heavy loads of woods or agricultural goods in heavy sacks on their backs. Another example is women in Bali that I have seen carrying things on the top of their heads while having their little ones on their backs – how do they do that, it’s a mystery to me.
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