What I've Learned in the Past 3 Years

I've been a Mommy for 3 years.  On one hand, I feel like it's been my job forever.  It's what I've always been meant to do, I can't really remember a time I wasn't called "mommy" for most of my day.  It's hard to remember when I would sleep late, instead of up early with the chickies and making breakfast for three.  When I look at pictures of myself and Hubby in college or before, I often think how weird it is that we didn't know Reilly and Reagan then.  We didn't know they would be ours.  We didn't know we would be theirs.  We didn't know what our family would so soon become.  It seems like a *blink* ago that I was in college.  But my life was so so different then - and I am so so different now.

I became a mommy at 23, which is rare these days.  Super young to many.  But it didn't seem that way to me.  I knew who I would marry when I was 16, and was engaged by 19.  We would have been married right away if not for pesky things like college and logistics getting in the way. ;)  So we patiently waited until I was 21.  And then came mommyhood at 23.  People still tell me how young we are, and how young we started - but if you talked to me when I was 10, 15, 20...this was always what I dreamed of.  But I do still have to pinch myself that it happened this way.

Here are a FEW of the millions of things I have learned in 3 years.

1.  I never (ever ever) knew how fast I could jump out of bed when a weepy "Mommyyy!" calls me in the middle of the night.  Before my eyes are fully open I am in their room, singing a lullabye and stroking her hair back to sleep.

2.  The number one quality you need to have to be a Mommy, is patience.  Lots and lots of patience.  Love, obviously comes naturally.  But patience is just as important, and comes naturally to no one (especially after the third pee pee accident of the day, when the little one crawls through it before you know what happened)

3.  I learned not to TELL your children how you want them to act - ACT how you want them to act.  No matter what you tell them to do, they will act like you act.  If you say thank you every day, so will they.   (Likewise the little sponges will copy all the not-so-nice- habits you have too!)

4.  I learned that nothing is more healing to the soul than snuggling your baby, or hearing you babies laugh with each other.

5.  I learned to remember that they are little people.  Of course you want them to be the best versions of themselves - but they can't be perfect.  Because nobody is.  Just like we have faults, get angry, get frustrated, have failures - so will they.  I try to show them grace, and how to deal with these emotions and failures, rather than try and force them into perfection. (Cue: patience!)

6.  Breastfeeding really is that important.  It really does bond you like nothing you can imagine.

7.  I've learned to never, ever, ever doubt your instincts as a parent.  If they have a sniffles and you want to keep them home all day - do it.  My instincts have told me to protect them since they day they were born, and that instinct can only do them well while they are so little. Do what your gut says, not what others say.

8.  I've learned that I didn't know what fear was until  I became a mommy.  I thought I did, but there's a deeper fear you feel as a parent - one that requires much more faith and prayer.  It's what you feel when their fever reaches 105, or their croup is rasping in the middle of the night.  It's stronger because you no longer fear for yourself or your own life at all, only for your baby's.

9.  I've learned that there is a new love that I never knew existed until I was a Mama.  There is never a time that I look at these faces that I don't fill with joy.  I see in them pieces of myself and Hubby, and am in love with watching them grow.  Nothing to me has ever looked as beautiful to me as these babies...even in their imperfections, Mommy's love sees beauty.

I can't wait to see what else these babies will teach me.