Thursday, April 10, 2008

I get an "F" in parenting...


Melanie enjoying our picnic




Her eyes are turning quite blue- maybe they will be as pretty as Melanie's.


Showing off her 9lbs 4 oz

There have been a couple of times lately that I have messed up but I didn't feel too guilty in the end. Once I forgot to turn Natalie's monitor back up after I fed her in the middle of the night so I slept through her next feeding. Then, there were a couple of times I might have gotten a bit too frustrated with Melanie's tantrums. However, today I feel the most guilty of all.

The day started off great. We were meeting our friends Elizabeth and Sarah at the park. I got the girls ready and off we went. We ended up meeting up with another friend, Jennifer, who is due in October. We went walking around the trail (which is about 70% in the shade) and then went to the playground with the girls which also has a shaded area. I have a friend's double stroller I am borrowing. The canopy part of the stroller does not fit in my trunk easily so I have to remember to put it in each time I put in the stroller. Well, today I forgot it. After a fun time at the playground Melanie and I had a picnic lunch outside because it was so beautiful out. Natalie stayed under the garage but Melanie and I ate in the driveway. After our picnic lunch Melanie played in her sandbox b/c Clint put fresh sand in it and I nursed Natalie in the shade. However, this being the first pretty day of the season I forgot to put sunscreen on us all. Normally I am the sunscreen queen constantly reapplying our SPF 50. But, this afternoon after we had been in a for a while I realized I totally dropped the ball. Natalie, thank goodness was in the shade most of the day and had on long sleeves and long pants. So, her little cheeks and nose are quite red but I wouldn't say burned. Melanie, thank goodness, has her father's skin and has red shoulders and arms but that is it. Me, on the other hand, I am completely burned on my shoulders, arms and chest to the point it hurts. In total we were out maybe 2 1/2 hours, some of which was shaded...but when the palest mother and a brand new baby meet the sun it is not pretty. I can deal with my own burn- it is me learning my lesson and Melanie is fine but I feel SUPER GUILTY about Natalie. Hopefully by tomorrow the redness will go away. I hope it is not bothering her- she is not crying or anything and she doesn't have a temperature. But, I will feel so much worse if it does not get better soon.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh Leslie, that's not too bad! I was thinking sleeping thru a feeding sounded worse...:-)
We are learning along the way aren't we? We make mistakes and learn from them-our parents did the same thing and we turned out pretty good didn't we?!
Take it easy on yourself Mama!

Elizabeth said...

I agree---I am always so paranoid that I won't hear Sarah in the middle of the night (but I am also always secretly hoping I won't!). Don't feel too bad about the sunburn--I did put some sunscreen on Sarah but I totally forgot myself and now my arms are burnt--and I had the SPF 50 with me the whole time at the park!