Two years ago today my life changed forever. I became a mom. The mom of Evelyn. What a wonderful day that was. It was a traumatic day. After a long induction and a non-planned, almost-but-not-quite-emergency, c-section I was an exhausted mess by the time Little E finally made her appearance at 6:41 pm.
That first year was brutal. When she was only three weeks old, our brand new family moved from Dallas to Houston. Loads of stress followed.
No only were we all adjusting to being a family we were adjusting to a new house, a new city and Jason’s new job. To make matters worse we couldn’t find anything because with a newborn who has time to unpack?
I was constantly asking myself a series of questions.
Why is the baby crying? Is she wet? Hungry? Sleepy? Overstimulated? Where is my spatula? Colander? Office supplies? How can I send out birth announcements if I can’t find them? Where is the nearest post office? Grocery store? Pharmacy? Gas station? Where am I? How do I get home? Why is the baby crying? Why am I crying?
She turned out to be an infant which can be referred to as “high need.” An infant constantly in a state of unhappiness unless she was being held standing up, outside in a state of constant motion. I think I spent three months just walking her up and down our little street. Back and forth. Back and forth. Every. Single. Day.
Right about the time she turned one things started to get easier. At 13 months she began walking and her temperament improved. At 15 months, I finally night weaned her and sleep trained her. At 18 months, we took her on an epic camping trip to Big Bend in west Texas.
All the while she started talking…a lot…and she hasn’t stopped. Everything has a word now and if she doesn’t know what it is she is eager to find out.
She’s a type A perfectionist. Things absolutely MUST be perfect, exactly the way she wants them OR ELSE. She’s stubborn to the max (I can’t imagine where she got that from) and fiercely independent which is a fairly new development. She is smart, or at least I think so and she has this hair, which I wish I had a picture of, that has a mind of it’s own. She’s smaller than average for her age but that’s not a bad thing.
She’s very polite – saying please, thank you and excuse me even to inanimate objects. Nothing humors me more than, “Excuse me, teddy bear” which comes out like, “Skews me, tay bay-aar.”
Hee hee.
As it turns out this mom business isn’t so bad after all.
Each and every day she teaches me something new. Thanks to her I am more compassionate and forgiving, patient and kind. I am so thankful to have her in my life and am a better person because she is here.
She keeps me laughing and crying all at the same time. One minute, I can be in stitches over something funny she said, the next minute in tears because she refuses to listen.
I find it amazing that had she been conceived during any other time during any other month she would be a different person – a different part of Jason, a different part of me and we wouldn’t have her. She is here because she’s supposed to be here, just like she is – absolutely perfect…
…crazy hair and all.