What I Wish I'd Known..

I had to opportunity to share a tidbit of mom advice over at Grace's blog (one of my favorites!) last week and it was so funny that she asked about my own personal 'what I wish I'd known' story because it had been on my mind for several weeks leading up to the tail end of this pregnancy with baby number three. 

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There are so many ideas/topics/words of advice I could write about in relation to new moms like "..if someone offers help, TAKE IT..and don't feel bad about it.." or .."you'll never use the bathroom alone again, so get used to that now.." but something that has remained on my mind throughout my entire (second) pregnancy and really brought to reality during this last trimester, is directly related to what I didn't remember to do during my first pregnancy with the twins.  I  absolutely failed to take time to soak in the idea of being a mom. 

a M O M.  That's huge.

The number one question I get from friends and strangers alike goes something like "I bet carrying one is soooo different from your twin pregnancy.."  Well, all things considered, yes.  I am less whale-ish, but really it was the emotional aspect of the entire thing that has caught me off guard and brought me to tears a couple times. 

Okay.  A lot of times.

It was simply the unknown surrounding my entire pregnancy the first go round that caused me to actually take a few weeks (a month?) before I  was able to realize that I was a mother.  A mother to two precious little beings that I carried, nourished, and now was flung into caring for (and keeping alive).  Motherhood is such a beautiful thing to step into, and I let myself get caught up into the 'what-ifs' of the days, weeks, and months prior to and following the birth of my girls.  For lack of a better word to describe the situation .. it was actually a JOB.  It was hard work.  From weeks 24-37 I found myself on what felt like permanent bed rest to keep them incubated until they were ready to be born.  Then it was birth.  C-section or natural - singletons or multiples, that's hard work.  We are amazing creatures to be able to endure any of that.  I realized looking back that there was a lot of recovery that took place postpartum, and not just from birth, but the hype of the last 9 months had all come to a head and here I was at the end of it now with two babies.  Of course, I wouldn't change a single thing about any of it - and if I knew how amazing this motherhood thing was going to be like, I would have figured out how to have done it sooner in life.

With all that behind me, and sort of knowing what is expected of me on delivery day and sort of having an idea of what I am doing as a new mother for the second time around, I daydream.  I daydream not about the 'what-ifs' and unknowns of pregnancy, delivery, and motherhood...

...but of her sweet little nose. 

...those squishy baby cheeks.

...what the shape of her eyes will be. 

...rubbing her teeny (and oh-so-fuzzy) baby ears. 

...and ultimately getting to hold her tight after 40 weeks of waiting. 

Moral of my sappy story: Don't get caught up in the crazy of life.  Take a moment to think about the beauty of it all. The beauty of motherhood and pregnancy.  You wont regret it.