If you had told me two years ago that I would be a suburban stay-at-home mom, I would have responded with an emphatic “NO WAY.”
I’m almost leery of talking about how this all came about, since many people have trouble conceiving and it was so easy for us. But I have always believed that things happen for a reason in their own time, and apparently it was time for Mr. Fox and I to bring this little girl into the world.
You see, we had just moved to Nashville and were in the process of settling in to a new routine with Corey’s cushy new office job and my transfer to the local Buca Italian Restaurant. I made it through the hustle of a holiday season in the restaurant biz, and we took a trip home to NC with our trusty Welsh Corgi, Karma. Holidays as an adult can really feel empty, even as a married person, and that may have been one of the reasons we started thinking about having a baby. I remember the conversation going something like this:
Me: “I think I’m going to come off the pill after the new year…”
Corey: [[after some silence]] “Okay…”
Me: “I mean, we’ve been married a long time, we’re mostly settled, we’re not idiots… What are we waiting for? I’ve heard it takes a couple months to conceive after you stop taking the pill, so we can just see what happens… “
WELL.
We were pregnant the next month.
I can’t say my Mom didn’t warn me.
And you should ALWAYS listen to your Momma.
Cut to nine months later. We delivered a beautiful baby girl. Which is to say that Corey ground his fists into my back for hours while I looped out on laughing gas, only coming around to push for an hour and a half. Honestly, I was motivated more by the thought of it just being over than about the resulting baby. Then I met the chick that has changed my life:
Cut ahead another 9 months. That baby has turned into this: (Standing? What?!?!?!!!)
And I have to say, its taken me that full nine months to feel like myself again. It felt like I just woke up one day and looked around, and said “Hey, this is really my life now.” Women are given all kinds of info and preparation for pregnancy and birth, then instruction for feeding and basic baby care, but NOTHING about how drastic the day-to-day differences are going to be. I hope to share a little bit of what I went through during those early days, but I’m not quite feeling up to the challenge at the moment. (That constant battle between what I want people to think about me, and the truth of what really goes down…) In the meantime, we are creating our new life together, day by day.
Vixen and Kit 