Dear Families.com family,
I am a new blogger here at families.com but not new to the site. My husband has been the fatherhood blogger for almost two years and I am excited that I will be contributing blogs about pregnancy. My hope is to share some of my pregnancy experiences, insights, challenges, and triumphs. My husband recounted his experience of the preparation we made for the birth of our son and all that followed. I’d like to recount my experience of my first pregnancy and hopefully soon blog about a second pregnancy as it progresses!
I am the second oldest of nine children. I had the privilege of “playing” mommy with my younger siblings. Although I learned a lot about raising children by caring for my siblings, it in no way prepared me for the demands of motherhood like pregnancy would. Motherhood begins with pregnancy and pregnancy, like motherhood, involves lots of sacrifices; sacrifices I had never experienced as an older sibling. Nothing compares to actually having a child growing inside you. For me (and I’m sure for most if not all moms) pregnancy was an incredible learning experience. Pregnancy affects every single aspect of your life and as such it demands change. Some of those changes are permanent, many are only temporary, but all are worthwhile and part of the amazing journey of pregnancy.
Some might call me a typical type A personality. If by that they mean that I am a planner, then they would be right. I like to gather as much information as possible before making a decision and that is exactly what I did when my husband and I decided that we were ready to have a baby. That doesn’t mean that we started trying right away. We had planned to start trying in four or five months. The idea was to have our baby at the end of the school year so we could spend the summer getting to know and spending lots of time with our son. So in the months leading up to “trying” to conceive, I read almost every book on the subject, from popular to obscure. I was determined to know exactly what I was getting myself into and what options I had. I just wanted to be prepared. Sometimes things don’t always go as planned (as you’ll soon see in forthcoming blogs). In contrast, sometimes things do go according to plan… with maybe a few minor changes (also to follow in upcoming blogs). Whatever the case may be, pregnancy is certainly an exciting, emotional, hormonal, and existential experience.