Becoming Mom

After 8 years of marriage and having a miscarriage two years before, we finally held our beautiful baby girl in our arms in the beginning of 2010.  What an amazing feeling it was and still is to hold her and look into those beautiful innocent eyes and face.  For the best part of the past 3½ years she has been a very healthy and happy child and still is.  We hardly ever knew when she was teething as there were no signs really, next thing we knew she had one or two or at one stage 4 more teeth coming out at once.  My Mom and Granny came to stay for two months to take care of her when I needed to go back to work after my maternity leave.  She started going to nursery at 4 months old and absolutely loves school.  She loves being around people and is not a shy child.  I'm sure she got that from her father because when I was a child I couldn't even say a word if there was a stranger in the room.  I didn't make friends easily and our daughter is the total opposite.

In the Winter of 2012 our second daughter was born.  She is a bit more shy than her older sister and I was terrified about sending her to nursery school.  For the 1st two months of her life she would not go to anyone else and only wanted to be in my arms.  She struggled with bad colic and was treated for it.  It improved after two months old.  She also started sleeping through the night then.  Our first daughter still doesn't sleep through every night.  My Mom and Granny came to stay with us again to help out and went back home when she was 7 months old and she started nursery school then.  I was so stressed out by the idea that she had to go to school that I could hardly sleep.  I couldn't focus on anything, being worried sick if she would be crying all day.  So the 1st day of school finally arrived and I phoned halfway through the day to find out how things were going with her.  Apparently she was a bit moody in the morning, but after having a nap she was absolutely fine, loved her teacher from the word go and never had a problem going to school after that!  What a relieve.

Ok,  lets go back a few months... before our 2nd daughter, Kiddy#2, was born, I was so worried about how our eldest daughter, Kiddy#1, would react to her, not being the center of attention all the time anymore.  When Kiddy#2 finally arrived, Kiddy#1 was a bit clingy in the first few weeks after we got home.  The week I spend in hospital with Kiddy#2 after giving birth was the first time I had been away from Kiddy#1 for so long and I, as usual, was worried sick about her and how she was coping not having me around.  She was still on nappies at the time and by the time I got home, she was basically off the nappies.  I, until this day, still don't know how my dear husband managed to get her to potty train so fast!  She was definitely showing signs of wanting to potty train and at school they really have done their part, but I didn't expect it to happen so fast.  I remember still thinking about the financial side of things with both of them still on nappies.  So that was sorted!

So after the few weeks of being very clingy and wanting to get onto my lap every time I consider sitting down, things started going back to normal slowly, but surely.  I can still remember the first time Kiddy#1 and Kiddy#2 really connected.  Kiddy#2 was on my lap and Kiddy#1 came over to us and she looked into Kiddy#2's eyes and Kiddy#2 returned a favor by giving Kiddy#1 the most-beautiful, gummy smile that I have ever seen her give anyone.  Kiddy#1 was completely taken by surprise and burst out laughing and I could see in her face how much that smile had meant to her.  They love each other, yet don't play together too often yet.   I'm not worried as Kiddy#1 obviously sees her sister as a baby still, and probably thinks she is too big to play with babies.  Kiddy#2 just turned 1 and I am sure they will be playing along fine soon enough.