Just when you think you can sit back and relax a little, your little one face plants, falls off a chair, cuts himself or in my case does all 3 in 1 day!
I spent my life watching my mom fret over my brother without it ever really affecting me. She would infuse him in front of me, help ice his bruises, yell at him when he would hurt himself carelessly, and yet, I would go on with my day to day not bothered by it much.
Now, I have my own children, myself a mother to a child with Hemophilia and I a total and utter mess! Each time Gabriel falls, I panic, each time he has a bruise, I pick up the phone and, with dread, I call the hospital to know if I should bring him in or not.
9 times out of 10, I pack him and off we go to the hospital. He cries the whole way there, he cries the whole time at the hospital and he stops crying when he gets his chocolate milk/ice cream/toy car - whatever I can get for him quick enough to stop the crying.
When I first started bebeccino, my quest was to find the best safety items out there for Gabriel. I wanted to buy everything I could get my hands on to not only protect him but to also show other moms that these products were available.
I bought him a helmet, the Thudguard that he would wear as we wheeled him around on the vacuum cleaner. He would wear his knee pads when playing on my mom's deck. I bought him the cutest Nemo and Cars ice packs to make the bumps a little less painful.
I realized some time ago that the products were not only for him, but also for me. To make myself feel better.
They are great products and they work well but at the end of the day, you cannot put your child in a bubble. He is going to get hurt no matter what you do. You need to know and accept that as hard as it may be.
Being the parent of a child with a bleeding disorder is without the doubt a truly difficult thing. It's not a disorder that can be seen right away, it's not a mental handicap and it's not one that people know much about. You are constantly having to explain to others what it is exactly. But all that is ok, it's great, because the more you talk about it the more people start to understand it. The more you say Hemophilia, the less foreign and scary it sounds. The more you discuss it with your family, your friends and your co-workers, the more you will see that you are a strong parent helping yourself and your child overcome a disorder.
A Psychologist once told me that I had to look at it like this - this is how his body works and we have to work with it.
It sounded so simple and it's taken me a year to fully understand it and use it as my philosophy.
I am a proud mother to 2 wonderful boys, one with Hemophilia and one without. My challenge now is to figure out how to treat them both the same.
Do I put the Thudguard on the little one too? I think I will.
I write this blog to help me rationalize my thoughts and to also let other moms and dads out there know that if they are struggling with a child that has a disorder, they are not the only ones.
Bebeccino.com was created to help people find safety products. I hope that you will spread the word about this blog and the website.
Tomorrow is Easter and Sunday, and I pray that there will not be any falls, bumps or bleeds during the egg hunt!
Happy Easter to all...
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