"Oh, you just wait."

My sister has been a champion in my life.  After all, she’s known me her whole life and when she was born, I was standing at the door with balloons and a cake to celebrate her arrival!  Not really, according to my mom, I wouldn’t speak to her for a day but I loved my baby.  My sister is 16 months my junior and my best friend.  She is the mother of two beautiful children, my nephew, who will be four in less than a week, and my niece, who just turned one.  Now, my son is not quite 4 months, so obviously, she had a head start on the child rearing front.  Before babies were on the horizon for me and my husband, she had quite the knack for “preparing” me for motherhood with just one phrase: “Oh, you just wait.”  It never failed that our conversations would go a little something like this:

           Sister: “How are you doing today?”

           Me: “I’m good, just a little tired.  You?”

           Sister:  “You think you are tired now?  Oh, you just wait.  When you are pregnant or have a 

                       child, you will never feel rested!  You’d better sleep now.”

I don’t necessarily have this conversation stored verbatim in my brain, but you get the idea.  Often times, just telling her about my day, the magic phrase would slip into the conversation.  I don’t really know if she knew how often she was saying it but I would think, “Hey, I thought we were talking about me and my childless existence!”  Sometimes, I would bring it to her attention and she would respond, “Well, you just wait.  I’m just trying to prepare you.”  It even became a little joke between us once I got pregnant.  A lot of our friends are starting their families now as well, but some of them are not.  You know when everyone seems to be doing something like, buying a house, getting married, having children, but you aren’t?  Every friggin’ conversation seems to revolve around this topic and you just sit there thinking “How the hell do I change the subject?”  You can’t, and you just sit there and suffer so that you don’t look like a jerk that isn’t happy for her friends.  I’ve been very conscious of this and tried not to alienate anyone based on the mommy convo.  This being said, it’s so hard not to talk about my son ALL THE TIME!  Something really did happen to me once my little miracle made his appearance.  Motherhood is the best thing that ever happens to you and you just can’t help it.  When you are around other mothers, it’s sometimes the only opportunity you have to talk about the trials, tribulations, successes and failures of parenthood. 

Now that I am a mother, my sister is on super speed dial.  With all of her “preparations” for me, nothing actually prepared me for motherhood.  I am so thankful for all of her knowledge that she continues to pass on to me and don’t know if I could function on some days without her.  She is “my person” (for all you Grey’s Anatomy fans).  She listens to my fears and never judges me or my parenting choices.  I strongly suggest for all new mom’s to find their person once they take the amazing journey into motherhood and you just wait, it's the most exciting thing you can do.  Most men just don’t get it, and often render themselves useless in relating to what us women go through, physically and emotionally.  God bless my husband, he was the first to say, you need to call your sister or your mom because I just don’t know what to say.  It’s so important for mommy’s to have a support system, those sleepless nights can really weigh on her!  I hope that I can be support for any of my friends or even just a sounding board.  These precious little angels, after all, don’t come with their own instruction manuals.  So, if you are reading, thank you sista swista.  I couldn’t get through this fantastic journey without you.  I love you so much!