INDfamily

MALLORY JUNEAU: To all the mommas

by Amanda Bedgood

In honor of Mother's Day

In honor of Mother's Day I wanted to talk about two very special ladies that both became mommas this year.

With both my sister and best friend being pregnant at the same time, I was the resident pregnancy guru the past few months. I've answered questions, drew diagrams and discussed things that are way too gross and personal to even talk about in writing and I have loved every minute of it.

There is something to be said about being the one in "the know" about something as amazing as being a mom or so I thought ...

Just dozing off on a Wednesday night after dealing with my kids for 2 days during the ice storm, my phone rings at 12:30 a.m. For a split second I was totally annoyed "Who the hell is calling me right now?" I thought. My mom answers to let me know that my sister's water had broken and that they are going to the hospital - in the ice.

In my head I hear "water broke" I immediately tap into my backlogged bit of pregnancy trivia tucked away in the back of my brain and just "know" that she will have the baby within 24 hours. We get to the hospital and they get her started on pitocin, fluids etc. I don't know why, but I just figured that her labor would be similar to how mine had been for my two babies - boy was I wrong.

Not only was it a long and hard labor, she didn't respond to the epidural, her blood pressure was super high and she labored for 24 long hours without progressing enough to attempt a vaginal delivery. Regardless of the struggle, she delivered by C-section and had a beautiful healthy baby boy - Joseph at 11:22 p.m. on January 30, 2014, exactly 8 years after my son was born.

Oddly enough, Leslie, my best friend, went into labor very similarly roughly a week later with her water breaking, laboring hard and long with no progression but a healthy, happy, super serious baby boy - Landry James on February 9 at 3:45 p.m.

Something happened in those 24 hours I spent with Jade that I never expected - I caught myself wishing it were me. Not because I want another baby, but because I had a hard time watching my sister feel that pain. The pain I felt during labor is something that I cannot describe, but as soon as I saw her struggle, or clench her knees toward her chest or watch her leg/foot twitch, I knew that she understood what the pain was like and it was like we were connected by it.

Same goes for Leslie. I didn't labor with her but I felt myself texting way too often, checking in, asking for way too much detail from her husband with very limited man-based detail which didn't satisfy me at the time.

Both of the ladies, my sister and my closest friend mean the world to me and on the day that they both became a mom, I felt completely overwhelmed with joy, a very different joy then when I had my kids but a joy nonetheless. I am so grateful to have been part of their days and their kids lives now and see them grow as a mom and be the amazing women I know and love.

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers but most of all the new mothers -scared, beat up, exhausted and unsure.