When we were growing our family, the question I always wanted to ask mothers with more children was, “which transition was the hardest?”. Inevitably, I always wanted to know if that particular mom felt like the transition from however many kids I had at the time to however many kids I desired was awful. Every mom had a different answer, but I couldn’t devour enough anecdotes about the transition in family dynamics.
It was almost like birth stories, when you’ve just had a baby–you want to know how it went for everyone else. Was it awful? How fast was it? When did you know you HAD to go to the hospital? Would you EVER do it again??
Before Eli came to be, I was always wondering how I’d know when we were done. I also always was dying to know whether adding another kid almost killed other moms. :) I wanted more babies, for sure, but not if it killed me!
Since we’re most likely done with having babies, I’ve thought a lot about how we grew our family and how I grew into being a mother. I wanted to unpack what it felt like to add each child to our brood. I know my experiences will not mirror everyone’s experiences, and I know my thoughts and feelings will differ vastly from someone else’s. But, I hope you’ll be able to find something to take away from each little essay.
Tomorrow, I’ll look back at how having my first baby forever altered my identity.