Can I get an Epidural?

I think that when the baby is 10 years old, the mom should get another chance at that epidural. 

And then again at 13. 

And maybe one more chance before the little chick flies completely away.

Growing pains.  Those sharp stabs that cause discomfort and pain.  Every day there seems to be a new place in mothering that I run into one of these.  Places where I doubt and question everything I am doing. Dark spots where it seems impossible that anything good could come of things.  

But growth means good things are coming, right?  Around the corner maybe?  If I just hang on? 

Days like today, where I feel like everything went wrong, I tend to forget that we usually get things right.  My short term memory lapses and I slip away into a foggy place where parenting feels hopeless.  A place where failure and insult knock loudly at the door.  It's in these places where that epidural would come in handy.  Something to numb those pains of growth. 

In spite of these pains, I know that growth usually means that something great is about ready to bloom and with enough time, and patience, (and a little bit of wine and chocolate) we will uncover something new. And even when some days bomb, I must remember that there is mercy that is new each morning.   Mercy that might feel a little bit like an epidural. 



PS - School starts back up in 10 days.  Can I get an AMEN?