Pregnancy and Childbirth through the Eyes of a Three Year Old

There are many things I have been passionate about in my life. From an early age, I knew that feeling of deep, unadulterated, unconditional excitement... and I knew it well. When I was 3 years old I became a big sister. During my mom's pregnancy, I made some very educated deductions. I'm happy to say that these deductions are NOT the extent of my child birth education!!! These things are so fun to think back on now as a birth Doula, child birth educator and as a mother.

So, here they are...


Pregnancy and Childbirth through the Eyes of a Three Year Old

1.) "Pregnancy makes women cut off all of their hair."
This was true in my eyes. My mom was due with a July baby and we lived in southern Louisiana... throw in a few hormones and four very energetic home schooled children and you begin to understand what ACTUALLY led to this style choice. But nonetheless, my little world believed this to be fact.
Side-note: Believe it or not, many women report having a skin crawling feeling while pregnant and postpartum. I experienced this during my whole first pregnancy and now again postpartum with my second. It was bad enough during my first pregnancy that I actually DID get a pixie cut!

2.) "Pregnant women have crazy beautiful finger nails and they like to paint them bright colors."
I don't even know how often my mom painted her finger nails, I just have a few vivid memories of admiring her long, thick, bright red finger nails (they complimented her pixie cut very nicely) and thinking "that'll be me someday!" I still find this fascinating, how freaky beautiful a woman's fingernails can become during pregnancy. Thank you, Prenatals!

3.) "Boy-girl-boy-girl-etc..."
When my mom was expecting her 6th baby, I learned about "the pattern". Girl-boy-girl-boy-girl... so our family joked that this last baby would be a boy! Except, 3 year old, passionate, and take-you-literally Tab took this as fact. I told all of my friends, I say it in all of our home videos... "My mommy is having a baby boy!" Guess what?? I have a baby sister.
Among the many other wives tales out there... which are fun games to play and some of them seem to be fairly accurate... they are still 50% accurate, guys. Hang in there! And praise the Lord for ultrasounds when we just can't wait any longer to know if it's a he or a she!

4.) "Pregnant women don't change at all."
I believe it was probably a month before my sister arrived, I still hadn't noticed that my mom's stomach had grown. It happens so subtly I suppose. I followed her into the garage on one of her nesting energy surges and asked her to put on her wedding dress that we found. My mom has always been rather fit in my eyes, but at 8 months pregnant there was no chance in heck that she would fit into her customized wedding gown that she weighed 105lbs in when she wore it last. My mom just laughed... I didn't get it. Pregnancy is full of physical changes!

5.) "Moms just go to the hospital and come home with babies!"
The day my sister was born, I was upset about two things... "That's not a brother..." and "Why can't I take home my baby!?" I know, I've always been this complicated... Walking into mom's recovery room I distinctly remember the lights on the walls, thinking "this is a weird hotel" and wanting mom and the baby to come home with us. Once our visit was over, we loaded up our van full of children and went home... but not before I screamed "I WANT MY BABY!!!" alllllll the way down the hallway of the hospital. I was still crying about it as we got home and went to bed.
Truth is, it was drama like that that probably reassured my mom that she could use that over-night stay in the hospital! Moms have such a big roll in the family! You think making babies IN their bodies is pretty epic? You think caring for a house, kid(s), pets, etc... is a big deal? Many moms do this more than one time! That means recovering from a major experience like birth, WHILE momming. This is so incredibly inspiring to me! AND I AM ONE! So so incredible to me.

I get so nostalgic writing out these thoughts by three year old Tab... and now that I have two children of my own, I am so intrigued to see what their memories will hold someday. As a birth professional, I can only imagine what they will absorb and the stories they will tell someday... but you know what? I can't wait to hear it!