I always knew I wanted to have children. I adore my neice Micayla and my nephew Petyon, who have been the apples of my eye every trip home to Virginia, and I couldn't imagine a love greater than what I have for them.
When people find out you are going to have a baby, they tell you things like, "Get sleep now while you can!" and "Your life will never been the same?" etc. but in my opinion, they don't, or perhaps can't, prepare you for the amazing roller coaster that you are embarking on. I can't begin to describe the immence joy and loveI have when I hold my darling daughter. I am in awe each and every single day. I still can't believe it! Craig and I have a daughter. We have a daughter!
We had actually scheduled to induce the morning of the 20th. We were to arrive at the hospital at 12:00 the night before. The morning of the 19th we went to my doctor's office and the doctor said that I didn't need to arrive until 6:00am the morning of the 20th and they would start the induction. We agreed. We were anxious, nervous, and so excited! Well, that night, Craig and I had dinner together at home with the Christmas tree gleaming in the living room, and enjoyed our last evening as a duo. We went to bed... but around 11:30 or so, I woke up with a funny feeling. Long story short, and skipping all the labor-intensive details, my water broke and we ended up rushing to the hospital and arriving at Parkwest as originally planned around 12:00 that night! And Riley was born 9 hours later!
Since her birth, life has been a whirl wind. I decided that 6 weeks was not nearly enough time for us to adjust to life with Riley, and that I would take off from work til March 1. This would give me about 10 weeks to learn and for her to learn with us. Each day Riley seems to grow and change! I wouldn't give this time up for anything. I cherished every single moment that I could and looking back on these 10 weeks, in hindsight, I would encourage any new mother to savor each second. Forget about all those projects you thought you'd get done while on leave! Forget about the laundry and cleaning and getting back in shape! Our Riley has already grown from barely 6 pounds to almost 10. That's a HUGE increase in size when you think about it.
When I was growing up, there was a wall hanging in our home. I always loved it. I actually had it memorized and asked my Mom one day if she minded making me one similar. Well, she did one better. She offered to let it hang in Riley's room. It says everything I feel, and more.
"Cleaning and scrubbing can wait til tomorrow,
For babies grow up we've learned to our sorrow,
So quiet down cobwebs, dust go to sleep,
I am rocking my baby, and babies don't keep."
