To All The Mommas

Only a little over a year ago I still didn't know what to expect from motherhood. In fact these pictures are from our maternity shoot and were taken just a year and a few months ago. It feels like that was a lifetime ago though. It's hard to remember, or imagine, life before Tucker now.

Fast forward to the day my little Tuck was born. I went from not knowing what to expect to coming to the overwhelming realization that I was in charge of this little life and he depended on me for everything. I loved him more than I could ever have imagined I could love anything.

When we took him home from the hospital we were terrified. He was so tiny and fragile. I remember Kevin and I looking at each other like whoaaaa...what the heck do we do now?  The weight of the responsibility really hit me like a ton of bricks that first night alone with him.




















From that night forward I've doubted myself and there hasn't been a day since then where I haven't felt like I've fallen short as a mother in some way or another. I'm too hard on myself because I just want to be the absolute best mother and person that I can for him.

After many conversations with the other women in my life who are mothers though, I've found that if you don't feel that way, you probably aren't human.

Tuck was only about 3 month's old for our first Mother's Day together, and I still didn't feel like I knew what the heck I was doing as a mom at that time.

A year later though, I have a happy, bubbly, healthy little boy. Everyone who sets eyes on him loves him. He's silly, stubborn and independent. More independent than I want him to be sometimes. So in the end, I guess we're doing alright with him. :)

I learned a lot about the kind of mother I wanted to be from the women around me. I have been blessed with not only my own mother, but a few other women who have been like second mothers to me, all of which taught me so many valuable lessons and who helped make me the woman I am today. For that I am grateful.

Being a mother is the most difficult, trying, underrated and rewarding job ever. Just because you give birth, doesn't mean you are a mother. Not in the true sense of the word. It takes a whole lot more than that.

It takes a strong, committed, goodhearted, loving woman to be a great mother.

So for all the mothers that I know who do everything they can to provide the best for their child, who put their children and their role as a  mother first, who probably doubt themselves just as much as I do because we're women and it's just in our nature to worry.

Just know that you are stronger than you think.

And if no one else tells you, I will...

You're doing a great job.

Happy Mother's Day! Relax and enjoy it.