My First Mother’s Day!

This past weekend was amazing because it marked the first Mother’s Day I celebrated as a mama myself!  And let me just say, it was wonderful!  The weekend started off with a Mother’s Day service at church, where I was blessed with the opportunity to share my story and speak about what God has done in my life up until this point.  I spoke about my decision to transition from medicine to mommying and how I’ve found the need to trust God at each step along the way.  Sharing my story was definitely taking a step outside my comfort zone, but I’m grateful I did it!  Afterward, so many people told me how touched they were by my story, which was super encouraging to hear.  Ultimately, this taught me the importance of sharing your story, because you never know who needs to hear it. You can actually check it out below if you’d like to take a listen.  Feel free to start around 27:47 where I start speaking or take the time to enjoy the whole service!

Later that evening, I celebrated the accomplishments of a beautiful friend of mine who recently graduated from medical school and will be off to Harvard for residency!  I couldn’t be any prouder of her.  She’s such a hard worker and an amazing human being and is truly deserving of every good thing that comes her way!  For me, it was also nice being out for the night (Dad was at home with Micah) and getting to enjoy some time “off” mommy duty!

Now, here comes the fun part.  The next day, Mother’s Day, I. SLEPT. IN. UNTIL 2. O’CLOCK. Words cannot describe how good that felt!! I started having some back pain from lying down for so long.  It’s weird to say, but because of what that pain represented—the ability to rest—I was actually okay with it! I did wake up briefly to pump, and to eat breakfast AND lunch in bed, prepared by my wonderful husband, but other than that, it was right back to pillow land!

Now, I’m not sure what scheme DJ and Micah came up with while I was enjoying my sweet slumber, but when I woke up, I found out he said “dada” for the first time! I couldn’t believe it!  My Mother’s Day gift was my child, who I labored with for over 16 hours to birth, saying “dada”!  Here he is rubbing it in my face after I woke up.

Later that evening, DJ took me out for dinner to an Italian restaurant (our fave), while Micah stayed at home with a dear friend of mine.  Afterward, we enjoyed the Avengers: Infinity War movie (more like he enjoyed it, while I shamelessly curled into a ball and fell asleep in the seat next to him . . . you would’ve thought I’d had enough sleep by then!) and I finished my super delicious turtle cheesecake from dinner.

All-in-all, I would describe my first Mother’s Day as restful and beautiful.  It was also a time to reflect on what motherhood means to me.  I think, as women, we often put a lot of unnecessary pressure on ourselves to be the “perfect mom.”  But what does perfection look like?  And who are we allowing to define perfection for us?  Whether you’re the working mom or the stay-at-home mom, the cool mom or the corny mom, at the end of the day, what remains true is that we love our children and would do whatever we feel is in their best interest.  I think that’s what really matters.  I know that was true of my mom.  She worked nights as an ER nurse for the majority of our childhood, so she could be present in the day to pick us up from school, help us with homework, go on field trips, cook dinner and take us to piano and violin lessons.  I’m forever indebted to her and hope that I can be half the mom to Micah that she was to me.