Year One – Ten Years of Motherhood

Mother’s Day is fast approaching, on the 11th this month and I realize this is my 10th Mother’s Day as a Mother myself. I was 23 years old, when I had my first child, Peter. My husband and I were so excited to be parents. We had been married for three years and his little addition was a little piece of heaven in our world. We were the first of our friends to have a child, it was a little lonely when I realized I was taking this next step in my life without my girlfriends.

We had so many plans, I think I read every book I could get my hands on for pregnancy, labor and raising a child. I knew exactly how many days till my due date, spent hours searching through catalogues looking for the perfect crib, stroller, etc…we decorated the little nursery in our rented house with Winnie the Pooh.

And then the floor fell from under us, Josh was laid off 2 weeks before our son was born, the labor and birth were physically traumatic. But he was perfect. Motherhood was actually easy for me and came naturally. I revelled in being a mother. I remember a dear friend of my Mother’s looking me in the eyes and said, ‘Welcome to the club.’. Even though we were poor as church mice and unsure of our future we stayed positive because how could things go wrong with such a perfect little baby?

My husband went back to school, we packed up our little rental house and humbled ourselves and accepted the offer to live with my parents while Josh re-entered  the student life of papers, studying late into the night, while I raised our son.

That first year with Peter was fun. Everything he did was a small miracle to us, every milestone he hit we were sure he was pure genius. Holidays had a new meaning to us, Halloween was once again fun, Christmas magic was restored…

As new parents we made mistakes, we learned and worshipped our little man. Peter was a text book baby in so many ways, so easy going and happy.