A letter from a first time mom 💌

To the parents I know in my life, I had no idea.

I had no idea what you had to go through to raise your beautiful children. (especially the single parents or the ones that had no outside help).

I had no idea about your sleepless nights that dragged on for months.

The difficulty in figuring out what your baby needs and feeling like you’re a bad parent because you can’t figure it out.

For all those times I was enjoying my freedom while you might have been feeling too guilty to ask for help and never did.

For having to cancel plans last minute or seeing less of your family and friends because your baby needs more of your attention right now.

I had no idea you were still showing up to gatherings bringing whatever was needed when what you needed most was a nap.

I knew that raising children was hard, and that’s why I was hesitant for so long, but I didn’t know it was this hard.

Parents are completely different people to me now. What you went through and are going through is a level of sacrifice I’ve never experienced.

I want to say thank you for showing up for your children every day even when you have nothing left to give.

I wish I knew, I wish I was more forward and just showed up to help even when you said you didn’t need any. Because we can all use a break, even for personal time to feel like yourself for a minute.

And to the people who want to be parents one day:

Yes this all sounds horrible, it did to me. But you come out as a much better person. At a level you didn’t know existed within you.

Matthew has taught me to be more confident in my decisions.

He’s taught me to smile more and be more interactive.

He’s taught me levels of patience and grace I didn’t know I had.

You become the best version of yourself in the end because there is no other way around it.

The phrase that continuously comes to my mind to best describe this season is getting “baptized by fire”.

You can only grow from it by jumping in and choosing to learn and adapt.

God bless you parents and future parents, may God answer your prayers in the middle of the night and give you and your babies grace when you need it.