Paranoia

So I mentioned on Facebook that my little Austin regularly gets the hiccups lately. One of my friends said her OB was so glad she recognized the hiccups, because he had one mom call him frantic saying her baby was having seizures inside of her. That made me laugh.

It also made me think back to a paranoid couple we took a prenatal class with when we were expecting Tyler. They asked why some of their clothes said "Not intended for sleepwear." The teacher explained that jammies have to meet certain anti-inflammatory requirements to be considered sleepwear. This freaked them out! "So, do we have to change them into jammies for every nap?" Can you imagine changing a newborn in and out of jammies all day to meet this requirement -- Oh no! The baby fell asleep in his normal clothes. I'm exhausted, and I'm scared stiff he'll wake up if I change him, but we can't possibly let him sleep in clothes that aren't intended for sleepwear!!!

But we all have our paranoias. My sister worked at a pediatrician's office for a bit and couldn't believe some of the calls they got. The one that still cracks me up is the lady who freaked out because she found her baby chewing on a stuffed animal and later saw on the tag "Made in Mexico." She was sure her baby was going to have all kinds of diseases. They asked if she had purchased it in Mexico, and she said she had bought it at Walmart. They assured her that she didn't need to bring the baby in to be examined -- that the baby was going to survive, and that any germs/bacteria/virus would have died in the amount of time it took to ship and get stocked at Walmart.

So those are funny to me, but as moms do we all have to get paranoid about something? When we lived in Washington I often thought about the layout of our house and how it would be a real nightmare if someone broke in since we had a jack-and-jill bathroom set-up. I would sit there and think that if someone broke a window to get in, then I'd have Paul run in the boys' room and lock himself in with them while I locked our bedroom door (so I could access the phone), and then I'd also have to run through the master bath, the shower room, and the other bathroom to lock that door (since they all lead in a circle back to the master bedroom -- probably too confusing to understand unless you knew my house). What a paranoid thought when you're trying to get to sleep! But I'd think it often to make sure I knew the plan -- just in case ...

Fortunately since moving here I don't worry about someone breaking in (interesting, since most of my kids sleep in the basement and I'm two floors above in my room). Nope, here I worry about someone snatching them if I let them play alone out front. I live in a very safe neighborhood and know 99 percent of the neighbors. Yet somehow I'm just paranoid about the weirdo who happens to drive through on the one day I let my child play outside unattended. Man, my kids are deprived. All I had to do was tell my mom approximately where I'd be and that I'd be home in time for dinner and all was well ...

So, can you be a mom without having paranoias? Am I the only one who has been sure that my husband has met some horrible fate when he's late coming home from work? I always thought my mom was overreacting when she mentioned things like that, but maybe she was just being a mom!