I have to first off say, to all of the mommas out there, I didn’t understand the magnitude of what y’all were talking about until I became a mom myself. When you talked about loving something more than you could have ever imagined and putting everything you once cared about aside to make sure that your little one has everything he/she needs—I get it now.
I recently had my first baby, a little girl, and those mommas were right, I have never loved anything like I do her. The closest I have come is the love I have for my husband or my dog, but loving this little peanut that I carried for nine months is quite different. I would do anything for her and it has been so much fun getting to see her begin to grow into her little personality. She is the happiest baby and honestly sleeps pretty well, so all in all it has been a great experience so far–but y’all were right, it’s hard. It’s especially hard without my village.
I am lucky enough to have a huge, incredible family, both my side and my husband’s side, who I am incredibly close with. I was so excited to have a baby and have all of my family spoil her with all of the love that I got growing up. Then COVID happened. I had her at the beginning of April, right as the fear and concern of this virus was beginning and it just continued to get worse. My husband and I started our parental leave from work and though we have both “gone back”, we are still primarily working from home. Now, don’t get me wrong, the extended time that I get to stay at home with my baby girl is definitely the silver lining blessing in all of this. I get the best of both worlds, I get to continue to work at a job I love and at the same time, snuggle with her during conference calls and play with her during lunch time. All in all it has been working really well! She is such an easy baby (thankfully) that we are able to make it work beautifully.
But when they say, “it takes a village,” they were right. I haven’t had my village for in person support during this significant change in my life. Without the threat of this virus, I would have had my entire family fighting to hold her, meet her and take her for a bit while I rested. Instead, we had to make the incredibly tough decision to keep her away from everyone to try and keep her (and us) healthy. So it has been just me and my husband, staying home since March, trying to figure it all out on our own. Single parents, I don’t know how you do it–you are actual real life super heroes.
This has definitely been the most challenging season of my life and I’m not going to lie when I say there have been lots of tears shed when I feel like it all becomes too much, but our village has truly found wonderful ways to support us. They have sent food sent via Door Dash, Amazon packages of the latest baby items, and notes of encouragement and love. I am able to have happy hour Zooms with my girlfriends from college and spend evenings on FaceTime with the out of town grandparents. Though it’s not the same–we are lucky to have the virtual option.
For all of the mommas out there, I feel you, it is a hard time. My best advice is to find your village and hold on tight. Even if you can’t be with them right now, they will find the most creative ways to help out. It’s a crazy time that we are living in right now, but finding ways to be together, even though we are far apart, makes it just a little bit easier.
To my village, thank you. You have no idea how much you mean to me. You continue to help me weather this storm and enjoy this weirdly beautiful time with my little girl.
Love,
American Beautiful
Love, American Beautiful 