Ode to Motherhood: Why Giving Birth Makes You Completely Irrational

This is a story that moms will really understand... because having kids makes you kind of crazy.

Last night Jenna woke up at about 2am, which she does occasionally. We just ignore her (so cruel!) but then she settles back down after about 15-20 minutes and sleeps the rest of the night. She is famous for yelling things out like, "Get me OUT!" and "I wanna watch TV!" and even occasionally clapping to get our attention. "Get me out! (clap clap) Get me OUT! (clap clap) Mommy! Get me out of here!"

So we were doing our regular ignoring thing and I hear Jenna say, "I can't see!" She says it several times and I'm not sure what's going on. I start to get up to check on her and Dan says, "I think she's saying 'I can't sleep.' " I settle back down into bed and my totally irrational mind starts running.

Is she really having trouble seeing? Has she somehow gone blind? Are her eyes swollen shut from some kind of reaction to the circus we saw last night? The animals? The fireworks? Has she been vision impaired all this time and I haven't noticed? No, she 's never bumped into things or walked into walls. This one I can rule out. So what's my game plan? I can take her to the ER in 15 minutes and get testing done. But is she going blind? Can she be treated? Oh, the cruel irony that God gave her these gorgeous blue eyes and now they don't even WORK!!
Will she be able to lead a normal life?
Will she remember what I look like?
How much of the visual world will she remember?

Consumed by these thoughts, I get up out of bed, prepared to face anything.

I open the door to her room...

... and her nightlight is out.

Her room is pitch black and she can't see. Of course. Never thought of that scenario.

Happy Mother's Day to all of you who have had runaway irrational thoughts about their babies in the middle of the night.