So call me crazy but even as we are wrapping up the newborn days, and it’s been an absolute whirlwind of ups and downs, new life makes my heart happy and gets my mind whirling. My brother and his wife recently gave birth to their third son, which makes them parents of three boys – 3 years and under! I told my sister-in-law she is hazardous to my marriage because my husband can not even begin to consider having any more children but here she brings life into the world and I get all goo goo gah gah and sentimental.
We definitely have our hands full with two babes at the moment and I would say we are just now getting in a routine and accustomed to life as a family of four. We have had some challenging months since Baby E was born – my health, the kids’ health, financial decisions, extended family members’ health and personal issues, and so on and so forth! It seems a lot of “life” circumstances have happened in a cluster. And then, here we are juggling life, feeling exhausted since baby and toddler have been tag team waking us up at night so we have had very little sleep in an interrupted manner…oh parenthood joys!
However, even as tired as we may be, I still understand we have to cherish these days because as we experienced with our first, time passes so quickly and we will be left looking at the pictures reminiscing on when they were so small! Whoa…just typing that makes me feel the pressure we are constantly under as parents. Here are these two little boys that I cherish above all and I feel I’m living in a fog. When visiting my SIL and meeting my new nephew in the hospital, someone asked me my boys’ birth weights…let me think…oh yea, now I remember or rather I responded with the best, most accurate response I could give. Or when my father called asking about my son’s shoe size and I said I would text him back after I looked inside his shoe. I tell myself that these things are not credentials to being a good mom, but it just reminds me that I’m functioning with mommy brain!
Even though as I mentioned it is hard to think or talk about babies, ideas still pop in my head at times – Could my pregnancy days be over? Is this the last time we will experience xyz stage? I love being a mommy and I’ve internalized the statement I’ve heard over and over – “enjoy every moment, it goes so fast”. Honestly, I don’t enjoy every moment and the exhausting days don’t seem to go by fast, because let’s face it – parenthood is tough. However, I’ve noticed there’s a magical thing about raising children, when we reflect back, time has gone by in a flash and it’s the good memories that are remembered.
Hey, just maybe that’s how we ended up having more than one child – magic. Who signs up for the challenges of parenthood again and again?!? ;)
These are the moments we remember.
With love, Erin
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