Our second World Mama of 2017 is from Northern California. Sarah has two daughters: a very stubborn and energetic 5-year old little girl and the cutest little 6 month old baby girl. She is also a fulltime paralegal, a passionate blogger and pursuing a bachelor in interior design. Needless to say Sarah is one active mama. Today on World Mama she is sharing the story of her beautiful family.

Even as a young girl, I knew that some day I wanted to be mom. I was so close with my own mom and I knew that I wanted that type of relationship with my kids some day. (Later events in my life would take my mom from this world far too soon. So soon, in fact, that she never got to meet my husband or my beautiful girls.)

Fast forward to me being 22 when I met the love of my life. We knew that we found “the one” with each other and were planning our future together. Little did we know, that “the future” would happen very quickly for us. We found out that I was pregnant with our first a short two months after we had met. Although it happened a lot sooner than we had planned, we were both so happy to be welcoming a little baby girl into our family.

I didn’t do all that much research while I was pregnant.  I had a textbook pregnancy. Every check up was smooth and I was right on track growing this tiny human. Four days before my due date, I had, what I thought at the time, were Braxton Hicks contractions. I called a friend of mine who had recently had her own child (since I did not have the option of calling my own mom). She agreed that they were probably Braxton Hicks and suggested that I take a warm bath and wait and see if they go away – and they did. So I continued on with my day. Later that night around 8:30, I was having more contractions and we decided that it was time to go to the hospital so that they could check on the baby and me. It took us about 25 minutes to get there and by the time we got there, I was in full-blown active labor.

Since I was a first time mom, 22 and it was 4 days before my due date, the nurses all thought that I was overreacting and experiencing false labor. So they took their sweet time checking me in and I was not having any of that! I was at the hospital for about 10 minutes before a nurse actually examined me and when she did, I was already 10 centimeters and they could see her head! Mind you, my water hadn’t even broken yet! Within two minutes, I felt the urge to push and with 1 ½ pushes, our beautiful baby girl was born.

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It all happened so fast – too fast for any pain medications or to really prepare ourselves to bring this baby into the world. But we were thrilled! She was 6 pounds 9 ounces of perfect baby.

Being a mom was different than I expected, but it was also so much better than I ever imagined! I wouldn’t trade all of the sleepless nights, firsts or new memories for anything in the world! There was some trial and error in that first year, but we all learned together and it was such an exciting time.

When our daughter was 4, we found out that we were expecting again. We were so happy! Once again, I had a very smooth pregnancy with our second baby girl. You would think that I learned my lesson the first time around and would pay attention to my body more closely as my due date approached.

Apparently, I didn’t learn my lesson. I had dropped early on in my 8^th month and I had already started to dilate by the middle of my 3^rd trimester. For weeks, I was stuck at 3 centimeters. Then, after I had put my daughter to bed on May 13, 2016, a whole ten days before my due date, I once again thought that I was having Braxton Hicks contractions. (You would think that I would have learned and just gone straight to the hospital at the first sign of anything since my first came so, so fast, but clearly I wasn’t thinking.)  I waited almost an hour before calling Labor and Delivery to see if they thought that I should go in. Since I had 2 contractions while I was on the phone with them and I was already 3-4 centimeters at my last OB appointment, they advised me to come in right away.

We had moved while I was pregnant and now we were a long 45-minute drive away from the hospital. We woke up our daughter and loaded her into the car at 1:30 a.m. I will always remember what she said to me that night as we were getting in the car. Her little 5-year old self just wanted to sleep, so she asked me, “Mommy, can’t sissy wait until the morning to come out? I’m so sleepy.” I thought that she was so sweet and innocent.

We got to the hospital a little after 2:00 a.m. and welcomed our baby girl within ten minutes of being there! It was almost identical to my first delivery – fast and with no pain medication, except that she came earlier and faster than our first!

Watching my 5-year old meet and hold her baby sister for the first time was truly one of the best moments in my life. All the love that was in that hospital room at 2:00 in the morning was truly amazing.

Now I get to watch my girls bond and play together. I think that is one of the best parts of being a mom – watching your kids grow and thrive! I am so excited to expand our family and watch our beautiful children grow up together.

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Sarah

Sarah blogs over at The Designer Mama. A beautiful family and lifestyle blog, where she shares amazing tips about getting your home organized, touching stories about mom life and great articles on parenting. You should also check out her Instagram for more cute pictures!