What A Day

Today was a bit of a rough day for me,

for two completely different reasons.

. 

I had to be up at 5:30am (which is way early for me) and out the door by 6

to make it a car seat event we were doing. 

At the event parents who didn't have a car seat or had the wrong seat would get a brand new one.

I suppose it's just me being naive, but I really didn't think there would be many, if any,

children who showed up without a car seat. 

And then I opened the doors to my first car.

In the back seat were two precious kiddos, 4 years old and 13 months.

Neither were in any type of car seat. 

Just a seat belt. 

I wanted to cry. 

I realize I'm very "passionate" about car seat safety, and not everyone shares my same insanity.

But I was truthfully dumbfounded and speechless when I saw both 

those babies sitting in the back of the car without seat belts. Especially the 13 mo. old.

Their mom was extremely appreciative for our program,

and thanked us about a million times.

This situation brought up so many feelings for me...

sadness for these kids and the way they were growing up, 

jealousy that this woman who clearly could not afford children was able to get pregnant,

and anger that nobody in her life was willing or able to help her provide

a safe environment in her car for the kids.

The whole situation made me realize how blessed I am,

and how much I take for granted. 

After the car seat event I had to rush home, shower and head to work. 

I will say this about my job, we really get to know our customers. 

I see some of them every single week.

We know what is going on in their lives.

Many of them bring their babies in for us to see. 

Today one of our regular customers in. His wife and him just had a baby girl two weeks ago.

As he was talking to one of my managers I overheard the conversation.

He had come in because his wife was experiencing postpartum, and he didn't know what to do.

I should add, she in no way wanted to harm herself or their child.

They had made an appointment to see her doctor, but weren't able to be seen over the weekend.

I looked at this dad, and I almost started crying. 

He wants so badly to help his wife that he was tearing up telling us about what  was going on,

and how helpless he was feeling. 

We gave him as many resources as we had available, and

hopefully some will help until she can get into the doctor. 

If you happen to know of any resources or have suggestions of PPD, I would love to hear them.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a less emotional and heart tugging day.