Tribute to Motherhood

Abraham Lincoln described his mother this way:  "All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel Mother."

Each time I read this quote I am reminded of all the mothers in my life. There is my mother, my mother-in-law, my grandmothers, my aunts, my surrogate mothers, my friends, and the list could go on and on. Each of us is touched by the hand of a woman who can be described as an "angel mother". Here at Snuggle Luv we want to pay tribute to all the angel mothers out there. We know that each mother is unique and their experiences are all unique, however, they all have one thing in common, they have people who love and honor them! 

We will be starting a feature on our blog called "Mommy Mondays".  Each Monday we will feature a guest blogger who will talk about Motherhood. Very broad topic but we hope by reading about these mothers it will help to give you a boost to your Monday and inspire you and let you know that maybe you aren't alone in this mommy universe.

Because I am the writer of this blog I felt that it was only appropriate that I started this off. 

My motherhood journey began a long time ago. I am only 34 but from a very young age I loved children. I remember being just 6 or 7 and I would go to a neighbors apartment and watch her children while she cleaned her house. I felt so special!  That was just the beginning of my babysitting days. As a pre-teen and teenager, I spent many summers and evenings/weekends babysitting.  Some jobs were easier than others but I found that I enjoyed them all. 

I knew from an early age that I wanted to be a mother. However, as I got older and older I started to wonder if that would ever happen for me. Don't get me wrong, I loved the children in my life. Especially my nephews (I didn't have any nieces at the time) and my friends' children. But I still wanted a baby that knew that I was its mother and wanted ME to kiss the boo boos away!

A little over four years ago I met a wonderful man who was the perfect-for-me guy and we decided to get married. On our wedding day I became an instant mom because he had a 6 year old son. I love that little boy (although he is almost as tall as me so he isn't very little anymore) and thankfully he loves me. Then about six months later I found out I was pregnant. I loved the bond that I felt with my baby instantly. His birth was crazy and traumatic (that is a story for another time) and for the first night we only got to see each other for a few minutes, so I didn't even feel like I had a baby (except for the pain from my c-section). But the next day began our journey together. I had no idea what I was doing so we just fumbled through everything, but we started to learn about one another and that process is still continuing today. Then a little over two years later I had our second baby (she is only 4 months old). This pregnancy was not as enjoyable but the delivery was much better (yea for scheduled c-sections) and we started bonding immediately. She is a joyful baby and everybody who meets her loves her! I love being the mother to my children, I love waking up each morning and seeing their smiling faces (well the 2-year old has his days but the baby still smiles at me each morning). :)

Even with the joy they bring me though, I realize that motherhood is hard! There are days that I want a break, I don't always want to be the mother, sometimes I want to go back to just being the aunt that can then go home, take a bath, and read a good book. Then I start to feel guilty for those thoughts and tell myself that this is what I have wanted my whole life. Have you ever felt this mommy guilt?? Well I had an insight recently. I realized that part of my struggle is that I have in my head an idea of what a mom should and shouldn't be. I have been trying to make myself fit into a box that just won't ever fit because there is no such thing as a perfect mom. We are all just mothers trying to live the best that we can and do the best that we can. Each day we have the struggle and the opportunity to raise our children. Some days that raising consists of getting up, eating some food, taking a nap (hopefully all the kids at the same time so you can too), eating some more and then going to bed. Other days we are able to do a little more. Neither one of those days is right or wrong, they just are. And you know what? They are both wonderful, because the thing that we need to remember is that "Motherhood is a wonderful, rewarding, messy, noisy and sometimes crazy ride. But it is all worth it."-Author Unknown

Love,
Alecia