a letter to my pregnant friends

I have a few friends who are pregnant right now. Seeing them in their big bellied, glowing femininity, fills me with a bursting happiness. I wish I could tell them, could really explain, all that they have in store for them.

Pregnancy Paper Cutting – By Zhang Xiaohng

I would explain to them the distinct smell when you press your nose into your newborn's hair. Show them milk-drunk sleeping babies, and toddlers who snuggle into you in their sleep. I would tell them of the deep, deep glowing love that fills you when your baby stops crying simply because you hold them and talk to them.

I'd also show them exhausting late nights, hours walking in circles around a nursery or pacing a hallway to get your little one to settle. A baby who won't stop crying, or who only wants to be held. Constant nursing, difficult nursing.

Mama's to be: I tell you all this not to scare you, and not because anyone can in anyway prepare you, but because I want you to know a few things.

Most importantly, and above all else: you are enough, you will be enough, for you and your baby.

Though it may feel foreign to you at the beginning, and there may be challenges with things that you assume will come easy (natural doesn't always mean easy!), your body is strong and able.

You are not a perfect mom, but that is only because there is no such thing. Everyone is an "expert," but you, you are the one that knows your baby. There are times that you feel you don't know what you are doing, but the two of you will learn together. Accept advice, then dismiss what you know doesn't fit with your life, your baby. Listen to that fledgling Mama voice inside of you, it's there, and it gets stronger and more confident with every passing day.

It will be more frustrating, exhausting, and wonderful then you can ever imagine. The feeling the you get when you look at your baby is one that I wish I could bottle and give to everyone I love.

There will be bad days, but in the end Mama, in the end it is worth it a hundred times over. In the end you, the two of you, are enough.