What does it mean to be a mom?
To me it's really simple... You guys may laugh, but to me it's forgetting about my slippers.
I know, I know. Kate, what are you talking about?! Let me explain...
When Eli was in the NICU it was hard to say the least... He was born the Monday before Thanksgiving, that Wednesday his lung colapsed and he was placed on a vent and had a chest tube put in, and on Thanksgiving day I was sent home with no baby. And that was all in the first 4 days of Eli's life and NICU stay! Needless to say, things got crazier from there. There were really good days (like his first bath, the first time I got to hold him, the first bottle) and there were bad days (blood transfusion days, days when he had more A's and B's than we could count, when he had to go back into the incubator because he couldn't hold his temp) but through each day Rick and I would get up, go to work, I would race to the NICU as soon as I was done, then head home to pick up Rick, have a quick dinner and head back to the NICU to be with Eli till we left to go home to sleep and start all over again the next day.
So one day I was particularly sleep deprived and loopy. We were going to my mom's house for dinner that night and then heading to the NICU. On the way to the NICU (after dinner and everything) I looked down and there on my feet were these pink, puffy, furry UGG slippers. I burst out laughing. It was a much needed laugh. And to this day that is what it means to be a mom for me. To be so sleep deprived and so much in need of being with my children that I wear my pink UGG slippers right out the door and don't notice till I am half way to where ever I am going.
Being a mom is hard work. But it's worth it... Put on your pink slippers and get to mom-ing it! :)