Mother's Day and March for Babies

Today was our first Mother's Day as Moms. It was a wonderful day. It started with waking up with Little E in bed with us (well it really started at about 3am with Little E waking up screaming due to a tooth we think is coming in). It was so amazing to look over and see both my baby and my wife with me. We snuggled for a while and then we got up. Little E gave Mommy her card and Little E gave Mama her card and her present. It seems that Little E and Mommy broke the rules and bought a gift for Mama. My wife is too nice to me. After drinking coffee and feeding Little E some breakfast we got ready to go to brunch at one of my favorite restaurants. It was super yummy and Little E did great and was very well behaved in the restaurant. A few mimosas later and I was one very happy Mama. We spent the rest of the day doing some shopping at the local mall and finished off our day with taking Little E to the grocery store for the first time. I know that may seem crazy that 1. I am excited enough about this to blog about it and 2. I spent part of my first mother's day doing it. But as a preemie mom simple things like going to grocery store with my baby mean so much to me. When Little E was first born I didn't know if Little E would ever be well enough to come home from the hospital, forget healthy enough to go to the grocery store. Then when Little E finally did come home, RSV season and the lock down that it causes kept us from doing so many of those normal mommy baby things that I had so looked forward to before I had Little E. Being able to take Little E into the grocery store is a step in healing for me. It is normal, it is a tiny step in reclaiming some of motherhood that I lost when Little E was born prematurely. All in all it was a perfect mother's day. It was spent with both my girls and it was all I could have ever dreamed of.

Yesterday we did the March of Dimes March for Babies. It was a wonderful experience and I am so glad that we walked. Team Bumble Bee raised $1723! The weather was terrible all morning right up to the start of the walk. It cleared as the walk was beginning and we walked mostly rain free except for a few showers. While it would have been amazing to walk in the sun it was still beautiful and so inspiring to see all the people who showed up in the rain to help prevent premature birth and birth defects. My best friend, her daughter, my parents, Shazam's best friend, and one of Little E's doctors walked with us. Little E slept through the entire walk and was fabulous the whole time. She was also snug as a bug in a rug in her snazzy stroller rain cover. Yet another reason to love the quinny.

One of the most heartbreaking parts of of the day were the families walking for babies who died. We walked behind one of those families and spent many moments in our 3 mile walk thinking about how that could have been us. How, for what ever reason, we were the lucky parents who got to bring their baby home and be able to experience the blessing of watching them grow. It is so easy sometimes to get caught up with all the things I missed out on, walking behind that family reminded me of all that I have.

I am looking forward to the walk next year and have already started fundraising. I have decided that I am going to save all the dimes we get in change for the entire year. We already have a jar where we collect our change and I just added another jar for the dimes. I think it will be a great way of keeping the work of the March of Dimes in my mind throughout the year. I also think it will be a wonderful way to introduce charity and giving to Little E when she is old enough. I hope some day Little E will be bringing her own jar of dimes to the walk.

Whether you carry them in your arms or in your heart happy Mother's day to all the Moms out there.