I'm so happy for you!
I was so shocked when I logged onto the forum on the 1st of January (hoping to read a new "Cathe Pregnancy Update" and found the post that said you had delivered baby Eric!
Congratulations! I am so happy for you and your family! Isn't being a mom the most wonderful feeling ever?
I have a 2yo son, and I still remember those first days. I couldn't have been happier. I was so amazed by the love I felt for him. It truly is indescribable...the most wonderful feeling in the world!
I also remember being a mom was so much harder than I ever thought it would be. It still is, but it's also so much more rewarding than I ever dreamt possible.
The thing that was definitely hardest for me was the lack of sleep. I was nursing Connor every 3 hours (it took 40 minutes to nurse, so I was starting every 2 hours and 20 minutes) and then once I was done nursing, I would lay Connor back into the bassinet, and he would lay there and fuss, looking for his binky that continually fell out of his mouth, so it would take me a good 30 minutes to get him to sleep even after I nursed him! I was only sleeping about 1 hour at a time, and I remember thinking I was going to go crazy so many times. I just dreaded the sound of his little pamper butt crinkling as he kicked his legs, and tossed his head back and forth looking for a breast to latch onto (only in the middle of the night of course). I can remember nursing Connor, with excruciating sore nipples, and looking over at my sleeping husband (who is wonderful, and a great help with Connor, but works a full-time job whereas I don't, so he was getting his much needed and much deserved sleep) and I would just want to kick him because he was sleeping while I was up, exhausted, nursing my precious son! I wished so much that I could put him away and get him back out in the morning to play with as if he were a doll! I found it best to make sure that I got plenty of rest during the day in order to keep my sanity that night.
And now, in spite of knowing about all those hard times I'll be in store for with a second, I am really ready to have another baby! All those sleepless nights while they are newborns, (and I'm not convinced those times are harder than the times when they start walking and are so curious about everything that you can't sit down to visit with your friends for a minute while they try to destroy everything in their house), or throwing a temper-tantrum, or any of the wonderful things I have yet to discover as he gets older. None of those things could ever convince me to not have another baby (and possibly even another--I mean they're so precious, how can you stop at 1 or 2?). Nor do they come close to competing with all of the wonderful, special, tug-at-your-hear moments, and immense feeling of pride that I fills my chest to bursting every time I look at my beautiful son. Just to see his precious smiling face...to hear him say I "uv" you too!, to hear him call for Mamma, and to hear the way it sounds--almost like a warm hug that means comfort and love and safety all at once. It's remembering moments like these that I know nothing else matters. There is nothing like family, and there is nothing like the love of a child--your child. As much as every day life tries to get in the way, nothing is more important than family. As long as I have that, everything is great.
Best of luck to you in your new journey of motherhood! Thank you so much for sharing this special time of your life with us. There were many, many times when I laughed and almost cried reading your posts.
Great to know you're all well and healthy, and I just loved reading Jon's story of Eric's birth! You'll have to fill us all in later when he takes his first steps, says his first word, and all that other great baby stuff!
