Mommy Dearest

Yesterday, one of my dearest friends became a mommy for the first time to little Abigail Katherine. No, that's not her pictured above...although that appears to be the cutest baby alive, baby Abby is actually much cuter.

So, naturally this brought me back to my own early days of mommyhood. There really is no way to prepare yourself, is there? I mean, you can take all the classes, do all the right things, have one of everything stocked at Babies R Us, but when that baby take his/her first breath you suddenly realize....you're about as prepared as you are when the teacher yells "pop quiz" and you haven't so much as peeked at your text book.

Becoming a parent is arguably the biggest change one will ever endure and in my mind tops the list of all major life events...including getting married and even the stress from the death of a close family member. Becoming a parent shakes you to your core and simply changes you forever. It's true that becoming a parent opens up a whole world of feelings that you didn't know you were capable of. So, how could you possibly prepare for something that you didn't even know existed? The answer? You can't.

So, I laugh thinking back to those first few weeks...not really sure how to even put one foot in front of the other, not knowing whether I was coming or going and really having not one other care in the world that didn't revolve around this little 8 lb child. Days, weeks and months went by when I didn't put her down. Trust me, not by choice. Let's just say that Anna came into this world knowing what she wanted. We even have ultrasound video of what appears to be her crying in the womb. So, as soon as she got a chance to actually use those little lungs, it was all over.

But, we survived what I thought would never end and now 4 years have passed and I'm left wishing I could have those days back.

Well, maybe just 1 of them.