Thoughts of Beginnings

This is a little tidbit I wrote as I was still struggling through my first trimester:

"Each morning a struggle to get out of bed, each new day a struggle to eat breakfast without throwing it back up again, each day a struggle to find food that won't make me feel immediately repulsed, many days a struggle to finish anything before my energy is gone and I find myself simply exhausted, finished, and ready to sleep the afternoon away.

"This is the common struggle of many women long before they ever meet their child. For some the external symptoms are more or less extreme; for each person and each pregnancy, the experience is different. But before we know anything about the baby - personality, gender, physical features, etc., we fight through the days of exhaustion or nausea waiting until we know this child that seems to have come from out of nowhere.

"I have learned the stories of some for whom the morning sickness was so extreme that they felt suicidal - and yet would go through it again because they are now very happy and contented with their children and in their role as a mother. All these things a mother endures for her children - and this is long before the dramatic event of [birth], the continual [work] of feeding and nurturing, the struggle to teach the child how to live and live well as a person and as a part of society."

What an amazing process it is to become a parent.