{"id":420,"date":"2015-09-21T11:07:00","date_gmt":"2015-09-21T11:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/2015\/09\/21\/momma-told-you\/"},"modified":"2020-10-28T17:55:47","modified_gmt":"2020-10-28T17:55:47","slug":"momma-told-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/2015\/09\/21\/momma-told-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Momma Told You"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/div>\n

Momma told you it would get better. \u00a0She said that as you sat in the rocking chair holding your baby and crying. \u00a0Both of you, crying. \u00a0You were wearing the same sweatpants you had put on three days ago, your hair was unwashed, and the house looked like a bomb had gone off. \u00a0You were convinced the baby would never sleep with the soul-deep conviction of a new mother. \u00a0You just knew this was your life. This. \u00a0Forever. \u00a0A baby in your arms, spit-up down the front of your shirt, and no sleep. \u00a0Ever. \u00a0Because every time you would start to drift off you would hear that little snuffle, \u00a0the one that came right before the wail of a starving baby. \u00a0Of course he was starving. \u00a0You knew that gut-deep too because he had only eaten an hour ago and if he was hungry again it must be because you didn’t have enough milk and he was starving and you were a bad mother. \u00a0You loved him, of course you loved him. \u00a0You knew that deep down too. \u00a0But how could you spend the rest of your life like this?<\/p>\n

Then Momma came and told you it would get better. \u00a0You would shower again and the baby would sleep. \u00a0One day, maybe not too soon, the house would be clean again. \u00a0The baby wasn’t starving and you were a good mother. \u00a0You believed her. \u00a0Because she was a real mother. Not like you, you still felt like an imposter.<\/p>\n

But Momma was kind. \u00a0She didn’t tell you that this was only the beginning, the easy part. \u00a0That a baby who won’t sleep is easy (would you have believed her?) \u00a0She didn’t say that you would never really sleep again. \u00a0She didn’t tell you about the sleepless nights because of sickness, surgeries, broken hearts, and plain brattiness \u00a0She didn’t tell you about the times you would lie awake worrying, convinced you were doing the whole parenting thing wrong. \u00a0She didn’t tell you about nights lost to worry about bad grades, girls who think they are ugly, and boys who think they know everything. \u00a0She didn’t tell you about the night terrors, thunderstorms, vomiting (so much vomiting), and lost stuffed animals. \u00a0About homework left till after bedtime, final trips to the bathroom, and one more drink of water. \u00a0She didn’t tell you about new drivers, unanswered phones, and waiting up until you hear the key in the door.<\/p>\n

She didn’t tell you any of this because mommas know their babies and she knew you. \u00a0So she patted the baby on the butt and you on the shoulder and left, with a promise to call tomorrow. \u00a0And that pat told you all you needed to know. \u00a0It was all out there waiting for you, the sleepless nights and the worry. \u00a0But somehow you knew that out there as well as the love and the joy and the just plain fun of being a mother. \u00a0You knew that it all balanced out and that none of it lasted forever. \u00a0That this too would pass. \u00a0That it was all worth it. \u00a0That you would figure it out. That you were a real mother.<\/p>\n

You knew it with a soul-deep conviction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Momma told you it would get better. \u00a0She said that as you sat in the rocking chair holding your baby and crying. \u00a0Both of you, crying. \u00a0You were wearing the same sweatpants you had put on three days ago, your hair was unwashed, and the house looked like a bomb had gone off. \u00a0You were convinced the baby would never sleep with the soul-deep conviction of a new mother. \u00a0You just knew this was your life. This. \u00a0Forever. \u00a0A baby in your arms, spit-up down the front of your shirt, and no sleep. \u00a0Ever. \u00a0Because every time you would start to drift off you would hear that little snuffle, \u00a0the one that came right before the wail of a starving baby. \u00a0Of course he was starving. \u00a0You knew that gut-deep too because he had only eaten an hour ago and if he was hungry again it must be because you didn’t have enough milk and he was starving and you were a bad mother. \u00a0You loved him, of course you loved him. \u00a0You knew that deep down too. \u00a0But how could you spend the rest of your life like this? Then Momma came and told you it would get better. \u00a0You would shower again and the baby would sleep. \u00a0One day, maybe not too soon, the house would be clean again. \u00a0The baby wasn’t starving and you were a good mother. \u00a0You believed her. \u00a0Because she was a real mother. Not like you, you still felt like an imposter. But Momma was kind. \u00a0She didn’t tell you that this was only the beginning, the easy part. \u00a0That a baby who won’t sleep is easy (would you have believed her?) \u00a0She didn’t say that you would never really sleep again. \u00a0She didn’t tell you about the sleepless nights because of sickness, surgeries, broken hearts, and plain brattiness \u00a0She didn’t tell you about the times you would lie awake worrying, convinced you were doing the whole parenting thing wrong. \u00a0She didn’t tell you about nights lost to worry about bad grades, girls who think they are ugly, and boys who think they know everything. \u00a0She didn’t tell you about the night terrors, thunderstorms, vomiting (so much vomiting), and lost stuffed animals. \u00a0About homework left till after bedtime, final trips to the bathroom, and one more drink of water. \u00a0She didn’t tell you about new drivers, unanswered phones, and waiting up until you hear the key in the door. She didn’t tell you any of this because mommas know their babies and she knew you. \u00a0So she patted the baby on the butt and you on the shoulder and left, with a promise to call tomorrow. \u00a0And that pat told you all you needed to know. \u00a0It was all out there waiting for you, the sleepless nights and the worry. \u00a0But somehow you knew that out there as well as the love and the joy and the just plain fun of being a mother. \u00a0You knew that it all balanced out and that none of it lasted forever. \u00a0That this too would pass. \u00a0That it was all worth it. \u00a0That you would figure it out. That you were a real mother. You knew it with a soul-deep conviction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":469,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,13,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-children","category-life","category-thoughts"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2940,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420\/revisions\/2940"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}