Birth: The Beginning

After 24 hours of labor, I gave birth (naturally) to the sweetest 8 pound 9 ounce wiggly baby that I have ever seen. And that is where it all began...

It's important to be open-minded when a new parent, but there is a limit to a person's willingness to listen to others. As a mother, there is a limit to how much advice you can take in. Everyone, from your mother to your cashier at the grocery store, is willing to give you a piece of advice or a word of warning on how to care for your infant. Which would be fine, I'm sure they've all raised perfectly well-adjusted angels, but they aren't the mother of the particular angel they're cooing over. Life as a mother is hard, but it's the best life I've ever known.

Despite all the well-meaning advice and all the googely-eyed looks from grandparents, other new parents, those who are trying to conceive and anyone who isn't already an old parent, being a mother is the greatest job I have ever known. All of the words and looks from the rest of the public are so easily forgotten when I hold my baby and he rests his head on my shoulder, the way I so often saw other babies resting their heads on the shoulders of their parents when I was younger. Embarking onto this new playing field of diapers and onsies is an unforgettable and remarkable journey.

Involving others in that journey, although it can be hard for a controlling and perfectionist mother, is also so rewarding. It is so heartwarming to see the way my husband interacts with our son. The way he holds him as they smile and coo at one another, my son in his baby dinosaur pajamas with feet and my husband in his shirtless at-home uniform. When my husband lifts the baby over his head parallel to the ground in the flying position until a drool bomb just begins to drop and then shifts the baby over my upturned face just as the bomb falls, it's impossible to be mad at either one of them. 

This fascinating and irreplaceable journey is one which I am more than willing to travel and share.