Laboring for hours on end can be truly exhausting — along with the first nights with a newborn that follow. But as long as your partner is there cheering you on and stepping in to help, it should all be OK, right? The truth is, even the most well-meaning husbands may need to catch some shut-eye as the hours tick by after labor.
Still, that doesn't mean the sight of them snoozing away on the couch while you're wide awake and in pain won't annoy you. That is probably why one mom's hack to keep her husband awake in the delivery room has suddenly gone viral. Two words: Nerf gun.
Samantha Mravik-Miller shared her hack on Facebook, where it's been shared by thousands.
The mom of three, who lives in Wisconsin, penned the Facebook post, writing that her latest trick has helped her finally achieve "Mom hack level 1,0000."
"Worried about the nights in the hospital with your newborn and dad sleeping?" she wrote. "Well…then don’t forget one of these in your hospital bag."
In the accompanying photo, she can be seen holding up a bright orange Nerf gun, aimed right at her sleeping husband, who had fallen asleep in the delivery room.
Samantha says she came up with the trick after learning the hard way from an earlier experience.
Samantha tells CafeMom that when she had her first son Chase, her husband slept through the baby's cries every night in the hospital. Even now, Samantha can remember clearly how much she needed help.
"[Chase] was really fussy after his birth because he breathed in the meconium from having a bowel movement before birth," she explains.
It didn't take Samantha long to improvise a little.
"I remember having been on oxygen, I had no voice. My call button was out of reach," she shares. At the time, she didn't have a Nerf gun on hand, so she used what she had available.
"I resorted to throwing a water bottle at him to get his help," she admits. "And I missed."
When it came to the birth of her youngest child, Samantha says she made sure she didn't miss.
While preparing for her child Laeghan, Samantha knew what to expect. "This time I had to have a C-section, so I knew I was going to be less mobile than the last time," she says. "I thought Heck no, and with the 400 Nerf guns we have and being an all-boy mom, I have some good aim."
Shortly before the birth, the mom slipped one of her sons' Nerf guns into her hospital bag — and yes, her husband took notice.
"He was like, 'Ummm babe…why is there a Nerf gun in your bag?" she recalls. But truth be told, Samantha says she never had to use the toy weapon. (This time.)
"Maybe because he knew the threat was there," she jokes. Still, she says her husband does have a good sense of humor about these things, so if she had, it likely would have ended in laughter.
Samantha says she had a feeling her post was going to resonate with other moms who've been there.
And it sure has. So far, the post has been shared nearly 20,000 times.
"I knew I couldn’t have been the only mom who looked at her husband snoring away with useless man nipples after birth and wanted to take a shot with a Nerf gun," she tells CafeMom.
Although the Wisconsin mom loves that her post is putting smiles on other moms' faces, she also has some good advice to offer women who are nervous about going into labor. "Take it slow. We are never in control, except of the Nerf gun," she jokes. "It’ll all be worth it in the end."
