Practice parenting

So our poor Buddy has developed a serious case of seasonal allergies. After several weeks of itching himself nuts and several visits to the vet, we finally got to the bottom of it. Poor little one was covered in scabs and sores from his constant scratching. Anyway, Buddy has been put on steroids and the itching virtually stopped overnight which is fantastic. The only downside is that he has to pee every 3 hours! We discovered this the first night when Buddy woke us up before 5 a.m. whining and then peed in the hallway. So now we get up a couple of times in the night to take him out. And during the day, he goes every couple of hours. And such monster pees. Sometimes he'll pee for almost a full minute (and that's usually in the afternoon only 1.5-2 hours after his last pee). The funniest part is that Buddy is as unhappy about having to go out so often as we are. We often have to coax him out with treats and happy voices. He'll glare at us and drag his feet but then he'll pee for 45 seconds - he must have wanted to go but you wouldn't guess if from his behaviour.

Anyway, everyone seems to think that this is good practice for parenting but I tend to differ. I mean, do you know any 7-month pregnant women who set their alarms for 3 a.m. to practice what it's like to get up in the middle of the night? Mostly I'm just irritated about losing my last few weeks of decent sleep! But I am encouraged at how I am holding up. Mark has his ups and downs, which isn't a surprise as he tends to wilt if he misses sleep several nights in a row. Overall, though, he's been awesome, especially considering he's working all day. And while I've had a couple of days with afternoon naps and one headache, mostly I've been holding up well. I'm just cranky and SO BORED!!! I can't really leave the house, since I'm taking Buddy out to pee every couple of hours. I've been finishing up my internship paperwork from home, watching a lot of tv, playing online, going for walks with Buddy when I'm not too exhausted, and generally just going stir-crazy. I'm realizing that I'm going to have to find a bunch of mommy and me type activities to take part in. I just am not an alone at home kind of girl.

Of course, things brings me face to face with the part of parenting I'm most stressed about - making friends with other parents. Over the past few years, I've discovered that while I'm good at socializing, I'm not so good at making friends. I go through phases of social anxiety and withdrawal as my depression waxes and wanes and generally don't feel as confident about meeting new people as I used to. But if I don't make friends with other parents, then I can't arrange play dates for my son and then he'll have no friends. No one to come to his little birthday parties, no one to play in the park with, no one to take cute playing in the sandbox pictures with. Not making it any easier is that all the parents in my neighbourhood are perfect thin, fashionable, rich parents or nannies. There don't seem to be many messy, regular type parents. But hopefully they'll turn up in some of these community classes. My sister suggested I check out Dufferin Grove park where more hippy parents hang out but we decided I couldn't show up there with my Bugaboo! lol We finally settled on Trinity Bellwoods - hip downtown parents, probably a little too cool for me but at least a little more messy.