This sweet baby girl’s momma is the beloved Teacher Megan from Lauren’s preschool. Little Lucy decided it would be super fun to surprise her parents and show up two weeks early! Her little way of saying, “Hey lady, you’re not in charge here anymore, I am!”
I just love it when people I know get to become mommies (and daddies). When you’re pregnant, other parents will tell you what it’s like to have a baby, how you’ll feel and that your life will never be the same. In my mind I thought, “Yeah, yeah, I doubt it will be THAT different. I mean really, there’s about a bazillon people out there that have kids. They seem normal. How different can it be?”
Well, let me just say, from the moment they plopped that hot, squishy baby on my belly, I knew my soul was changed forever. It was true! Everything all of those moms had said was spot on. It was beyond explanation, yet I totally understood.
In hindsight though, they had all left some very important things out. Like how scary it is to bring that teeny tiny baby home and figure out how to keep it alive …without professional supervision! I vividly recall setting our now baby-filled car seat down on the living room floor for the very first time. Jason and I just looked at each other and said, “Now what??”. Even though this kid looked like somebody I already knew, she really was a stranger. Those helpful moms from my pregnancy had told me, in their sweet sing-song voices, that I would soon learn her cries and know exactly what she needed and that my “motherly instinct” would kick in. At that moment though, I wasn’t buying it.
I spent the next six months in a newborn fog: sleepless nights, all the typical changes that happen to a body after giving birth (total shocker by the way), massive poop explosions (again, no warning), nursing (don’t even get me started on that one) and did I mention sleepless nights? It’s downright hard to have a newborn at home. To be honest though, even if someone had tried to warn me, I wouldn’t have believed them.
The beauty and amazement of this new little person, from her baby sneezes to her sweet billy goat cries completely overshadowed all the scariness and uncertainty. Though I’m happy that time in my life is behind me, I would not trade those moments for anything!
Momma Megan seems to be handling her new position with such grace and ease. I was astounded at the rate she could perform a diaper change! Seriously…record-breaking! As it turns out, she has done a lot of babysitting in her years. That made me wonder, does previous experience make having a newborn easier? I literally learned how to change a diaper at age 33, in the hospital, by the nurses!
As I watched Megan with her little Lucy, she just seemed so much more natural and relaxed than I had been after being a mom for just a week. She was tired, of course, and there was a sense of newness in the air. Car seats and baby swings taking up precious walking space, a freezer full of food brought by good friends and family and dresser drawers filled with clothes far too big for their owner.
Perhaps it’s the “technical” aspects of handling a baby that can be practiced and honed through babysitting. I really don’t think there’s anything at all that can prepare someone for being a mom. That comes naturally, through instinct and time.
Wow! I sound just like one of THOSE moms!
Congratulations to sweet baby Lucy and her mommy and daddy! You are a beautiful family.
Please enjoy some image from our morning together.
Stacey
