How to Realistically Enjoy Every Moment with your Baby
“Enjoy every moment, they grow up so fast!”
Let’s just come right out and say it shall we ‘geriatric mamas’?!
This oh-so-common phrase said by well-meaning on lookers in the check-out line has become so cringey for most of us mamas who are currently surviving the very early years with our babies.
Like, nails on a chalk board level cringey.
Now, let’s add the equally common circumstance of hearing this predictable phrase while our toddler is having a full-on meltdown at the front of Target… (because they don’t want to sit in the shopping cart).
OR during mid melt-down because they want to take home not just one, but all, of the very pretty and very jumbo-sized, balls in the Target ball cage that you were desperately trying to avoid them seeing… as your shaken espresso with almond milk is splashing around the front of your shopping cart and your child is smearing drops of it on the rainbow colored bouncy balls she’s just triumphantly claimed as her own. (If you guessed that I’m talking about Annabelle here, you guessed right!)
Sometimes it feels like we’re starring in our very own season of Survivor, the Toddler Mom edition- with an attentive audience just waiting to say “enjoy every moment” when we go to the grocery store.
Hearing these words while Annabelle and I are out and about has always made me smile and think to myself, ‘if you only knew how much I know this to be true, how much I enjoy almost every moment… you would just give me a knowing smile or tell me she’s adorable.’ Because it’s true; She’s so stinking cute!
I’m a ‘geriatric mama’; Annabelle is my IVF baby. We only had one viable surviving embryo to transfer at the end of our cycle, so we’re beyond lucky she made it! But still…
Hearing the phrase has started to get a little annoying for me too; so I’m sure other ‘geriatric mamas’ feel the same way as non-geriatric mamas do sometimes. Why though?
It could be because it seems like we’re being told what to do, instead of being understood by older women who have been in our shoes; and at times it could feel like we’re being told that we don’t look like we’re grateful for having our tiny human blessings. I’m not sure the reason is the same for everyone or for every occasion…
But no matter what your reason is, I get it. Receiving this unsolicited advice by an even more ‘advanced maternal aged woman’. (LOL). Feels so cringey these days.
So, what’s been getting me through our crazy toddlerhood situations and hearing this phrase at least once a week lately?!
It’s a quote that I read recently …
“This is the last day that your baby will be this tiny.”
This quote really hit home for me. It shifted my mindset immediately.
Even though Annabelle is now a full-fledged toddler, I know she will always be my baby. All Moms feel this way!
So, the wisdom in this quote brings enjoying every moment into perspective for me and makes it feel more real. More do-able.
Given our struggle to have a baby, I’m truly-and sometimes awkwardly- less bothered by toddlerhood, (and all the craziness it entails), than a lot of the moms I know who were able to conceive their children easily.
Some days are definitely more challenging than others; and even though I’ve always thought that I was enjoying every moment with my baby as much as realistically possible… since reading the quote, our early mornings together as Mama and Annabelle, (as well as our trips to Target- lol), have changed so much.
This quote has not only saved me on the harder days recently, but it has also helped me to intentionally slow down and be present in these precious moments that I have with Annabelle while she’s still so little.
When I need to bring her to her Nana’s or her Mimi’s house in the morning, so that I can get ready for work, I feel like I can allow myself to be in less of a hurry to get out the door.
I can focus intently on what she’s saying to me and enjoy hearing all the words she’s starting to use and the absolutely adorable way she puts them together.
I’ve noticed that we laugh more, we hug more, I get to snuggle her more, and we just plain enjoy life more.
So, after reading that quote, I’m thinking maybe what people are really trying to say when they tell us, all too knowing and wise ‘geriatric mamas’, to “enjoy every moment because they grow up so fast” is…
Be present as much as you can be because tomorrow they will not be exactly as tiny as they are today.
They will be one day closer to not needing you as much as they need you right now- in this very moment.
So, breath it all in and soak it all up.
Snap all the photos, make all the silly videos, squeeze in all the hugs you can, blow all the kisses, eat their squishy little cheeks and kiss their foreheads as often as you can.
Be in the moment with them now.
Because this is the last day that your baby will be this tiny.
