Finding Equal Ground and Respect as Moms

I am a Stay at Home Mom, I was not robbed of my dreams, my future, or my goals in life. I am daily living them out and watching them soar. 

"Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see." Neil Postman, The Disappearance of childhood

The world tells us to live our dreams, achieve our goals, and the measure of a person is that of their achievements and of their successes. "Children will just slow you down." "Make the most of your life without kids because when you have them, your life is over". I hate to break it to you, but having a child is the beginning of the best life you will ever have! Exhausting yes, and self sacrificing, yes, but oh so worth it!

I am a stay at home mom(SAHM). I may not have the most money in the world, I may not have seen a great majority OF the world, I may not be able to sleep in, stay up late and party the night away, I may not have gone to college, I may not have experienced all the world has to offer, BUT, I get to hold my whole world in my arms each night and wake up to my future each day. My children are my greatest achievement, THEY are my future, THEY are the message I want to send to the rest of the world that I may never see. 

Does being a stay at home Mom make me feel like a lesser person? Some days, yes. The world has yet to realize the blood, sweat, and tears that go into being a stay at home mom. We are beaten down and made to feel lesser of a woman because we aren't out working and adding to our family's income. We are beaten down and made to feel lesser of a woman by those that think we aren't able to educate our children properly and socially. We are beaten down to feel lesser of a woman because we have chosen to forsake our careers and raise our children. This is the part that most working mom's do not see and the truth that many working mom's do not hear about being a SAHM. Being a SAHM is not only physically and mentally draining but also emotionally draining. We daily have to battle the definition of a Mom in the world's eyes. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against working moms. I have the utmost respect for them. I just wish the world had as much respect for SAHMs as it does for working moms. We have chosen to swim against the current and the harder and harder it gets as the journey goes. 

This subject has been heavy on my heart, so I decided to tweak my original blog from one dedicated to my son and his special journey to one of our whole family's special journey as we raise our boys and travel down this ever winding road of parenthood/motherhood. It is meant to be an encouragement to other fellow SAHMs, special needs moms, and mom's in general because motherhood is hard, but we moms are strong enough to handle it most days and we do need encouragement and need to stick together. We all need to know that we are loved, respected, and important.  

To you SAHM, I say this, we may be beaten down for our choice of forsaking our careers or not going to college and pursuing being a stay at home Mom as your dream job. You are not lesser of a woman. You are raising your future. You have one of the most important jobs in the whole world, considering it is the hardest job. Don't be beaten down by the worlds standards of a Mom. Be encouraged by God's great calling on your life. 

To you working moms, don't be discouraged and feel like a lesser Mom because you have to work to help provide for your family. You are important! I respect you and know it is heart wrenching to have to leave your child each day and to miss out on many things, but know that what you are doing is respected. I wish that everyone that desires to stay home with their child could, but I know that in many cases that isn't possible. I don't take for granted my being able to and I'm thankful that I can. It does not make you any lesser of a Mom in any case. ❤ Motherhood is a hard road with many different twists and turns but we are all headed in the same direction, that of raising our children to be the best they possibly can be. May we all respect and encourage each other on this journey. Much Love to You All! 

   

CAEDMON TURNS TWO!!!

Another year in our son, Caed's life has flown by! As we prepare for our next bundle of boy craziness, I can't help but think back to how amazing God has been to us to bless us with our special Caedmon and for bringing us through his first weeks, months, and now another year of his life! I look at our POLP and LP group (parents of little people and little people) groups on Facebook and am reminded how blessed we have been to have a super healthy child with no major surgeries or problems. I am reminded of how strong all these parents are and how precious our kiddos are! They are more than conquerors! As I always say, God knew that we needed Caed and Caed needed us. I wouldn't change a thing! 
A lot of people have been asking me and some are scared to ask because they feel like it's awkward, trust me it's not, I am more than happy to answer any questions and share our story with you. 
The question has been "will this next child have dwarfism as well? What is the likelihood of you having another?"
Well the answer is simple, there is a VERY slight-none chance that we will have another child with dwarfism as our geneticist told us early on, it's something that just randomly happens and we were blessed to have it happen to us. We chose not to have any testing done on Josh and I after Caed was born because from all of our research and such and Dr's advice we felt like there was no need unless of course we had another child with achondroplasia. So far, Braddock's measurements have all been normal and there have been no concerns although my midwives and ultrasound tech have run over every detail to make sure. I was scared at first but I know God has everything in His hands and the child he gives us we will more than love and care for! Each child is a gift no matter their stature or condition they may have been born with. Caedmon has been nothing but a huge bright light in our life and has touched so many other's with his smile, waves, winks, goofy faces, and unconditional love for others. I cannot wait to see him as an older brother. He will be excellent and I'm sure very protective. 
As for how Caed is doing, we still see early intervention each month(speech and OT) we love Mrs. Serena and Mr. Scott! We have been working on Caed's sign language as we are still working on words. He's trying though and is more expressive and communicates what he wants. Caed also is still on O2 and PulseOx every night until his next sleep study in April 2017. Blessed that he is so used to it that he has started helping us out with putting his oxygen on him! He is practically running these days and dancing and helping mommy with everything from chores to picking up daddy's dirty clothes and putting them in the hamper to picking up stuff when mommy drops it. He knows that baby Braddock is in mommy, when we ask where he is Caed points to mommy's belly or sometimes his own haha. He has tried out all of Baby Braddock's baby gear to make sure it's all Caed approved apparently. We haven't had to deal with any "fall on the floor" tantrums and he usually listens rather well. He is very particular about certain things like if a toy gets put in the wrong bucket or something makes a mess he freaks out a little. Get's his OCD honestly ;) It has just amazed me at how grown up he has become and what a good child he is. Hoping Braddock learns the ropes from Caed ;) Will be interested to see what Brad's personality will be like. Caed is so outgoing we'll see if we have a pretty chill little boy next. Either way Josh and I are very excited as our family grows! We just pray that Braddock's delivery goes smoothly with no complications and no NICU stay so that we can be those parents that get to take their child home soon after birth. That's my biggest hope and prayer! I can't imagine how some parents have to have their child in the NICU for months. It was so hard those two weeks. So we shall see and I will keep everyone posted! 

So, as we close in on Caed's official Birthday, tomorrow, We are beyond BLESSED by this very special gift God gave us 2 years ago. He keeps us on our toes and reminds me daily how truly honored I am to be his mom and be able to stay home with him and not miss a moment of his life. It's a hard job with no time off or sick days but I wouldn't trade any of it! I love hanging out with my son and all of our adventures together. He is my biggest joy and has made me a better person. We love you Big Boy! Thank you, God for another year with our Crazy Caed! 

Update on Our Crazy Caed!

And I'm back! I have been slacking on my posts lately about our crazy Caed! Caed has hit so many milestones since I last posted. He has blown his speech therapist and Early Intervention therapist's mind, which makes us so very proud and blessed parents. He is now walking, pointing, recognizing a few facial features, making a few animal noises, and getting himself into the standing/walking position from sitting position all by himself! It all has happened so fast. 

Caed started walking about a month and a half ago and we haven't been able to keep him still or in one place since. He follows me everywhere and has had a few rough run ins with mom's feet and other hard objects ;) his poor mouth has been through the ringer as far as bumps go. I'm prepared now with a frozen passy always available ;) 

Our Early Intervention therapist, Mrs. Serena has been blown away with Caed's cognitive skills. Caed loves any kind of animal but especially dogs and cats so I asked Caed to find a kitty in one of his books and he turned right to the page and pointed to the kitty. Mrs. Serena went crazy! She was so excited and said he was way above where he needs to be and is so smart(I already knew that but I am rather biased ;) and although Caed hasn't been saying words(just dada, yeah yeah, and uh oh) his speech therapist was so impressed that Caed does have the "yaya" sound down and said most kids don't pick that sound up until later. So he said shouldn't be long until we hear him spouting out words. He communicates so well though with a few sign language signs like more, done, and bye bye. He definitely lets us know when he is done and ready to go home when we are out. He waves his arm like "I'm done, bye people!" It's so cute. Can't wait to hear what words are first! No "mama" at all right now but he can make those "mm" sounds. If you ask him what a cow says he goes "mmmm" and "mmmmm" every time he eats something good or drinks his water. So shouldn't be too long until we have a nonstop talker ;) His Early Intervention review is next month, and he is ready to show off all he has been up to.

Caed has officially built up those muscles to get himself up into his standing and walking position from a sitting position. This just happened three nights ago! So proud of him! He is also getting in those canine teeth top and bottom(broke through last night actually)! These will be his 13th, 14th, 15th, and 16th! Crazy! So happy we are almost done with teething! These have been rough as he has been waking a couple times at night crying. Oh and best of all, he's been sleeping 6:30pm-6:00am!!!!! Hallelujah!!!! It would be even better if we can move that to later but for now I'll take it! He's pretty stern about going to bed before 7pm. So evening outings are still rather difficult, so apologies to those we have had to turn down invitations to due to this fact. Caed is still on O2 and a Pulse Ox every night so when he gets tired we have to get him hooked up to it in the evenings. Hopefully with His sleep study in April we will see if he has to continue with it or not. So prayers appreciated for that when the time comes. Would love for him to be cordless as he moves a lot when sleeping now and makes keeping the cords from tangling around him more and more difficult. 

Overall though he is thriving and doing well! He's a busy busy boy! His favorite things these days are magnets(goes back and fourth between fridge and dishwasher), balls and kicking his soccer ball around, WALLYKAZAM!(we will try to put anything else on and he finds his Wally DVD case and brings it to us, kid loves it, I don't argue because it teaches words and I love bobgoblin;), goldfish, remotes, waffles(eats two every morning), red sauce(still), kitties and doggies, mac n cheese, following mom EVERYWHERE, and being outside. 

We are enjoying this Christmas season so far with an official toddler. He has done so well with our Christmas tree and presents. Helps that he responds to "No" really really well and "come here". He did pull the bows off the presents because he just doesn't like to have stuff on things or on top of things or open. He's kinda OCD and I have no idea where he got that from lol every time I open the fridge, dryer, or dishwasher he is right there to close it and he gets into our Tupperware cabinet now but takes one piece out then closes the cabinet and repeats. Makes me laugh. He is so good though and we are so blessed :) We love our Caed! Still can't believe he is a little over 15 months old now! Where did the time go?! So excited to see what the next year brings. So blessed to be able to watch our boy grow in personality and stature :) being a parent is the best thing ever! It may be exhausting and some days you just want to scream and cry, but the good out weighs the bad doubly! 

So from our crazy Tripp family to your family! Merry Christmas! 

Remember the reason for the season and your life, Christ!