Comfortably Numb

The main major truth I’ve picked up over these past 5 months has been that as a parent, you’re always doing more with less…less sleep, less energy and most of the time, less money. It really makes me appreciate everything my parents did for me and explains why they were such big fans of everybody taking naps (usually on Sundays after church); it all makes sense now :)

While the responsibility and commitment is high, it’s so worth it. Watching Fi grow up has been amazing and it’s really brought Gena and me together even more. Kids definitely are an amplifier for a relationship.

If things are shaky and the people in the relationship are still trying to develop & grow, barely able to take care of themselves, let alone another human, adding a kid to the mix just complicates things to a level that most relationships just can’t handle. While it may be entertaining if your name is Momma G or the rest of the MTV Teen Moms’ audience, watching these relationships derail is brutal.

But if the people in the relationship are 100% devoted to each other, have a long history of experiences, have overcome adversity together, and share a library of inside jokes, including personifying pets with cartoon character voices…having a child adds another challenge for the team to take on and accomplish, strengthening their bond even further.

To that end, Gena has quickly become a Momma G machine. While I may be Fi’s “favorite” because Fi fits the traditional mold of being a daddy’s girl, Gena is the engine that keeps the school bus running – figuratively and literally. I feel like I’m the “star” player that has some talent, but gets an overrated amount of attention, while Momma G is the backbone of the team that always comes up big, saving the day in a lot of cases, regardless of whether the cameras are on or not.

For both of us, being able to function on little sleep and still be able to perform our parenting roles and be fairly productive at work has been key to our early success. Being functional, walking zombies seems to be a mutual daily goal for both of us. I don’t think any parent will tell you they embrace living in this fog on a regular basis, it just becomes something you accept.

I do my best to be numb to the distractions we deal with. And for most of them, I fight through it so I can focus on taking care of MG, Fi and the Fatman and doing well at XO, but there are some, like dealing with the Charlotte traffic/drivers, that I often (always) squander a little bit of precious energy yelling at the people that skipped lane changing at Driver’s Ed, always seem to be turning left when we’re behind them or the tards at NC-DOT that come up with genius ideas like working on 4 major highway bridges on 4th of July weekend. With my days of playing GTA/PS3 becoming a cold distant memory (no more virtual road rage venting), I’m just gonna have to become numb to this stuff too.

So maybe one day, as Fi continues to grow and sleep better throughout the night, Gena doesn’t have to be up at all hours pumping milk/cleaning bottles/lugging a 20# pump everywhere and we’re a little more financially stable after moving down to the Kann and then finally B-tyne (South Charlotte), we can be comfortable. But for now, we’ll just have to settle for comfortably numb…And as long as Fi keeps melting are hearts with that unmistakable giggle, bright smile and other baby wonders, we’re good with that :)