A Beautiful, Wonderful Thing

The following is something I wrote almost a year ago, now, back when I was pregnant with Bird. I’d like to share it with you today…

As I finally hit the stage of pregnancy where I’ve stopped losing weight from morning/all-day sickness, and have started gaining weight, I’m reminded of a fact that I just feel I need to share with others who may be going through this pregnancy thing for the first time and are struggling with the whole weight issue.

When it comes down to it, you won’t be worried about your weight the first six weeks, maybe even two months, after you give birth. It’s just not something you worry about or think about at all.

During those first weeks, you’re so wrapped up in this tiny infant you’re rightfully and gratefully distracted from how messed up your body feels. You feel…stretched. Very tired and not yourself. It takes a long time to get back to feeling “normal.” But in the meantime you’re so busy taking care of this little person you just don’t worry about things like weight or eating or sleep.

Eventually the sleep catches up to you and you enter the zombie state of early parenthood. But again, you don’t mind really because every time you look at that little bundle sound asleep in your arms your heart just melts.

If this is your first you may spend moments wondering if you were really ready for this parent thing—even if you waited and planned before getting pregnant. And the fact is, you’re never ready and you never know what to expect, until you’re in it. It’s just a fact.

Those precious moments when you look into their eyes and you see such pure innocence and love in them, you just can’t worry about yourself. You become so completely unimportant. That’s when you become a mother or a father.

Parenthood is all about losing yourself in your children. Even if you had parenthood thrust upon you by unforeseen circumstances, the beauty of parenthood is in losing yourself in your children. They are your world now. You are defined by them and they by you.

And it’s a beautiful, wonderful thing.