Being a mom...I get it now!

I didn't get it... I really didn't. Why would anyone voluntarily choose pregnancy, weight gain, delivery (or worse c-section), sleepless nights, hopeless days of crying, arguments over clothes, shoes, hair and meal times? 

 Thousands of unsolicited opinions and parenting ideas...Less time to yourself,  less time with your friends, less time for your husband.... I had watched my girlfriends struggle through their marriages, friendships and careers.... All to  be the center of some helpless diaper wearing person's universe...Why would anyone want to be a mom?

Somehow my very crafty husband talked me into this (while I tried to talk him into a Porsche Instead).

I will never  forget the night before my scheduled c-section. I laid awake all night crying.  Somehow I managed to wish away nine special months of pregnancy. Now I was going  to have to share him with the world. I wasn't ready. We hadn't bonded enough.  There wasn't enough time. What if I never had the opportunity to grow another  human being inside me again?

Little did I know, I was about to have an  even better role, an even more special relationship. I was about to be a mommy.  I have never been the same since. Sleepless nights give way to their  first smiles.

Temper tantrums bring their first "I love you"s

Less  time with your friends bring new special people into your
life.

And if  you are really lucky, it gives you and your husband
something very special in  common.

And while the unsolicited comments get tiring, you realize just  how many people genuinely care about your new little
family.

While being  the center of a little person's universe can be
tiring, at the end of every day,  I say good night to my special little guy and ask him, "Do you know what is  awesome? Being the mommy. Being the mommy is the best!"

I get it now.

Julie van Kessel

---