From pregnancy to kindergarten: How did we get here?

It’s been a few weeks since school started but I couldn’t let more time pass without sharing a Huffington Post piece I came across around the first day. Written as an open letter to “Moms, on the first day of kindergarten,” the mom-blogger wrote:

How did we get here?

We waited and we worried, reading the BabyCenter emails each week that compared our rapidly growing babies to kiwis and oranges…

We cradled impossibly small newborn bottoms in the palms of our hands, cut hospital bracelets from tiny ankles and learned to swaddle little limbs into baby burritos. We winced at each bad latch, and exhaled with each great one. We filled bottles and emptied breasts, measured milliliters into droppers and g-tubes. We pumped and we mixed and we forgot to feed ourselves. We fed our babies with love.

We rocked, we paced, we sang. We woke every three hours, or every three minutes. We shushed and we danced and we dozed. We may have spent more time awake than asleep.

We drove to preschool and playdates. We practiced our goodbyes and perfected our hellos. We caught slippery bodies at swim lessons, and twisted perfect topknots for ballet. We played the tambourine at music class and sang the “Hello, friend” song at Mommy and Me 341 times.

Moms: You rocked and you fed and you soothed and you worried and you taught and you cuddled and you counted the nap time minutes and added up the ounces and marked the passage of time with pictures and gasps and tears.

So as that brave, crazy kindergarten teacher ushers you out tomorrow and closes the door behind you, be proud.

Weeks after Avery’s teacher ushered me out, I still tear up reading this. I may still be emotional about my “baby” being in kindergarten – but, yes, I’m proud too.

-M

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