One year ago I walked to the doctor’s office for my 34 week appointment and instead, I had a baby. That baby turned out to be everything I ever hoped having a baby would be (albeit a little undercooked).
This is the first photo of the three of us. I never shared it because I thought I looked like crap. This is what I looked like after an emergency c-section and less than 6 hours of sleep. But as we’ve put distance between the time in the NICU and now, I’ve come to love this picture. It’s our first family photo and it was the first time I got to hold Ben, the day after he was born. The tubes and wires weren’t at all how I pictured this moment but hey, my sweet healthy baby is asleep upstairs so I’m grateful to modern medicine. And I don’t care what I looked like because I see too much love in this picture to be critical of myself.
I won’t bore you with too much cheesy stuff about how I can’t believe a year has gone by already (I can’t) and how grateful we are to be his parents (we are) and how much we truly adore this boy. I love him with every cell of my being.
People keep asking us what we’re doing for Ben’s birthday. Well, he doesn’t know it’s his birthday so we aren’t doing much. We’re going to do him a solid and save money on a party and throw a little extra cash in his 529 this month. You’re welcome, future Ben. Oh and his physical therapist says he needs some good sneakers so we indulged a bit and bought him some sweet Adidas Sambas. On Sunday a few friends are coming over for pizza and we’ll give him a smash cake and it’ll be perfect.
Becoming a Mom has been the single greatest experience of my life. It’s been easier (I realize you aren’t supposed to say that, but I just did. So there!) and has brought new depths of joy that I’d never known before. Becoming a parent with Nav has been everything I could have ever hoped it would be. He is a kind and patient person and he showed that every day over the past year, to me and to Ben. He is an amazing Dad and watching him with Ben will forever be the greatest joy of my life. Nav, we did it. We more than survived, we thrived in our first year of parenthood. I love you more now than I did on our wedding day and I don’t know how that’s even possible.
If you want to take a trip down memory lane, here is Ben’s birth story. I don’t recommend reading it if you’re pregnant because it’ll probably scare you. But if I’ve now tempted you (sorry) and you choose to read it anyway, just know that everything turned out okay. More than okay. Perfectly. Happy birthday Ben.
