I’m pretty sure it’s not just me who has struggled out of sleep in the middle of the night to nurse a baby and wondered when I’ll have a full nights rest again. I’m sure it’s not just me who wonders when on earth this little one will be able to play independently for, oh, say five minutes, so I can throw together a dinner more complicated than frozen pizza. And I’m sure it’s not just me who becomes wracked with guilt after such thoughts. So I hope this can be an encouragement. Yes, time DOES fly by. Before we know it, we’ll be sitting at a high school graduation, watching our “baby” accept their diploma, while the tears that fall from our eyes reflect memories of their tiny snuggles, their first giggle, those sweet moments in the middle of the night while we nursed them back to sleep. OK, maybe high school graduation is a bit extreme, but I can tell you from very recent experience, that I simply can’t believe my 14 month old girl is now sleeping in her crib ALL.NIGHT.LONG. (Nevermind the fact that she still wakes up in the middle of the night and I still get up to rock her, the point is she is weaned and our bed now only contains two people instead of three.) Sure, I came to a point where I was not just complacent about rocking her, nursing her, getting up with her, multiple times at night, I was content to do so. I was cherishing those moments. Nevertheless, there were plenty of moments of despair in my sleep deprived state, or in the back of my mind when my to-do list seemed to pour out of my head and wrap itself around the nursery, darkening the soft glow of the pink nightlight and stealing away my happy cuddles. And yet, here we are, only 14 months in, and that transition has happened. Looking back, it seems like it was so FAST. Already my memories of exhaustion and despair are buried by the grief of passing through a stage that will never happen again. Isn’t if funny how our minds do that? Like, there are women out there who have babies with NO PAIN MEDS and then DO IT AGAIN! Um, hello crazy minds and your sneaky ways.
I’ve said before that sometimes I feel like my reflections on motherhood are all about the hard parts. I don’t want it to seem like it’s been one challenge after another, with none of the amazing, blissful, exciting, precious times, too. That is not the case whatsoever! Sometimes it seems like the hard parts are those less talked about, though. And there is a longing in this mama’s soul to reach out to other mama’s and tell them that no matter how often or rare the hard parts are, you are not alone! Whether your child slept through the night from a few weeks old, or whether you are still nursing your big toddler at 2 AM. Whether you have an “easy baby” from the start or had to go through colic or are in the middle of terrible twos or teenage angst. Whether your twelve year old wants to spend every waking moment with you because she loves you so much or you’re sitting up at midnight waiting for your past-curfew son to walk through the door. You are not alone.
We all know there are good times. We can recite all the precious things about our children and the reasons we love being mothers. The moments that feel like glimpses of heaven. Those things are written on our hearts. The good outweighs the difficult by elephants and rhinos! But when the challenges are casting shadows in your nursery or over your dinner table, take heart. Give your baby an extra squeeze. Take a deep breath with your nose right in her neck and soak up her baby smell. Sit next to your teenage son on the couch while you watch yet another action movie and memorize his long lashes, his square jaw. And know, this too shall pass, and when it does, you will both be stronger, wiser, and more entwined in each other’s hearts.
