Mother’s Day

This weekend past I celebrated my first Mother’s Day.  I still find it a little hard to believe that this time last year we hadn’t met Paul.  He was still tiny little thing, wiggling around in my belly, making me feel really rather unwell. Now he’s seven and half months old, developing a proper personality and bringing so much love and laughter into our family…

On Sunday morning Adam crept out of bed early, while I was still waking up. He returned soon after, him holding a beautiful bunch of flowers and Paul gripping an envelope containing a card in his small, warm hands.  After depositing Paul with me for his morning feed, Adam went to the kitchen to make coffee and cook home made croissants and pain au chocolats, which he’d been working on since the day before.  All three of us sat in bed together and it was just so lovely.  The smell of our breakfast treats, the sound of Paul chattering away in his own little language and that unique sense of both interior and exterior warmth that comes from snuggling up with your loved ones.

After our lazy morning in bed, the rest of the day followed with comforting normality. I washed, folded laundry and spoke to mother and grandmother, Paul played and napped, and Adam went off to work in the afternoon. Although it wasn’t anything too different from any other day, it felt in a way like a little nod my own childhood and the sort of environment my own mother created at home- steady, calm and loving.

I’ve been really quite surprised at how naturally I’ve taken to motherhood.  I was never really a child who pretended to have doll babies, and as I got older I never really spent much time with young children.  I couldn’t really imagine having a baby of my own. But then I met Adam and slowly but surely it started to feel right. Paul was conceived and born, and all of a sudden I became one half of this tiny person’s entire world and it felt so right to comfort him, feed him, play with him and make him smile.

Of course it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. Motherhood is hard.  It’s exhausting and overwhelming, it forever changes you, and your relationship with your partner.  It makes you do things you thought you’d never do and instills a very powerful sense of selflessness. For me though, it’s also been so very rewarding and provided with a level of contentment I’ve not experienced before. It’s a life-long occupation, but one I’m so glad I’ve signed up for.

Have a wonderful week.

M. x