(November 2001)I am the proud owner of three marvelously behaved children – Caleb is 15, Faith is 13, and Jake is 8. They really are the joys of my life. Really, they are! I have been married for 18 years to the love of my life, Mark. Three years after we were married, we decided that it was time to start a family….Little did I know what it was going to look like when this journey started. I had some misconceptions of motherhood that started within the first 6 weeks of just being pregnant…I had always seen pictures of a pregnant woman and she looked so happy, so surreal, so peaceful – I couldn’t wait for my day to arrive when I quickly realized that picture was a lie – it didn’t take my body but about 4 weeks to realize that there was an invasion inside of me and it decided that it would no longer like food, water, or even the smell of anything pleasant! I thought pregnancy was a time for eating not dieting!! This got me started on my journey that I call the ‘toilet affair.’ My husband was quite jealous because I was loving on toilets more than I was him. I couldn’t help myself…how could I explain this strange sickness that had overcome my body – and this was what they called THE JOYS OF MOTHERHOOD? My morning sickness was also ‘afternoon’ sickness and ‘evening’ sickness as well. Who was the silly Dr. that thought morning sickness just occurred in the morning? I was told that this ‘sickness’ would end around the 20 week mark….that was another lie. My sickness was a full 40 weeks – wait, 40 weeks is the normal term of carrying a baby but since my body has never been very obedient to follow what the books say, it decided to carry my first child the gestational period of an elephant…okay, so it wasn’t that bad, but going to 42 weeks sure felt like I was carrying around an elephant inside of me. Did I mention during the pregnancy how many times I would have to get up at night to go to the restroom. I now see what God was doing – He was preparing me prior to the birth of Caleb with the ‘LOS’ Syndrome which stands for “Lack of Sleep” syndrome. So, by having me get up every 2 hours during the pregnancy, I was ready to take on waking up every 2 hours to feed this little person that had taken over my body when his little day arrived. There were some positive things about my first pregnancy – one was, Caleb’s feet were so big (a size 1 when he was born) that he was able to push my organs in different places of my body to pave the way for his sister’s arrival 23 months later, and those same feet brought his daddy much delight the night that Mark kept placing an empty Pepsi can on my tummy and Caleb would kick it off. That was where we learned the ‘play it again’ game – you know, the one where you make a funny face and your little child says, “Do it again daddy!” So you do it again, and they say, “Do it again daddy!” Well, by the 27th time, you DON’T WANT TO DO IT AGAIN!
So, the day arrived when I finally got to have this little child – it gave me a whole new understanding for Labor – I never worked so hard in my life as I did that day to have him. 23 ½ hours is how long!! The wild thing was, after all that hard work, I was overwhelmed with so much joy when I heard his little cry – he sounded like a hyena but “hey – that was my hyena!” Those little red curls, huge size 1 feet, 23 ½” long body – that was my baby – the one that invaded my body and caused me to despise food for 9 months, make my legs swell to the size of elephant trunks, had me gain 35 pounds, and feel like a blimp, made me waddle the last 8 weeks, kicked me in my ribs over and over again, make me wet the bed – yes, wet the bed as a grown adult (that was actually Faith’s pregnancy), give me heartburn,…ah, yes, this is motherhood and we were just getting started!
