It Just Gets Better

This is my favorite piece to share with every mom that’s had babies after me: it just gets better!

Hi! I’m Brittany and I’m the mom of TWO! that still blows my mind that God has blessed me with TWO sweet babies!

My son is 3 and my daughter just turned 7 months.

There is an abundance of advice on how to do everything “perfectly” and probably an over-abundance of Instagram algorithm power that keys into the toughest parts of motherhood so intensely that even if you didn’t know you should be struggling in that aspect, something highlights it and suddenly you have a new anxiety or fear to carry.

So I share this often – to myself too.

Heck, my husband and I even share this with one another when some days or moments get more difficult than others.

It just gets better

I think you can choose to focus on the hard or on the magic.It doesn’t take away from the hard, and I don’t want to discredit all the hard that motherhood is, but as my wise mother told me once: you choose what you focus on, and what you remember.

For my early, early mamas reading this – pregnant or with day old babies…

I remember those first nights!

…dusk would start to set in, and I’d cry – I was panicked of the night to come. 

Panicked for the sleepless night, the crying, the pain I was in – the breastfeeding pain! little did I know my sweet buddy had an insane tongue tie and peeling scabs off your nipples was not normal – mamas if you’re peeling scabs off your nipples it’s not normal! Find someone to help or email me!

I wish I could go back and give myself a big hug and tell myself this: 

it gets better, it gets easier! Sooner than you think!

Recently, I admitted this to my mom and she wanted to know why I never called her! And truly I don’t know why I didn’t… maybe because I thought it was normal… and I think to an extent it is. Becoming a mom is forged in some struggle, it’s hard! Give yourself credit for the hard work you’re doing! You’ve grown a human, and brought them into this world! It’s a LOT! 

But mama – just you wait! Just you wait for the MAGIC when that sweet baby of yours smiles at you for the first time – or laughs! Or when you start to get to know them – their humor, their personality… their likes and dislikes – my gosh, it’s so cool! 

I promise – and I’ll say it 100x because I want you to remember it. Deep in your bones:

It just get’s better!

& let me be clear, I’ve cried, and worried and cried some more. 

Sick babies, teething babies, awake in the middle of the night babies…I get it!

BUT in the midst, I try to always remember: it gets better.

And goodness the early days of a newborn are tough but so sweet! There truly is nothing like them & they slip away so fast. You blink and they’re not quite tiny or you suddenly realize that everywhere you go your baby isn’t the youngest in the room anymore! Some things start to get easier & yet you panic that they’ll never be THAT little ever again!

Motherhood right? You 1000% want to sleep again… and fit into your jeans again! …and yet you panic that they’re growing too fast, and questioning if you’ve cherished it enough because you can’t go back!

But just as you settle into contentment that it’s okay they’re growing & life is good…

 you hear it, the constant negativity…

The “just you wait until insert awful struggle”

Sleep regressions

Teething

When they start rolling everywhere 

Terrible twos

Etc etc etc 

BUT I’m here to tell you again: it just gets better!

Truly: they just get cooler and better!

I learned this with my first as I watched my sweet son just learn and grow and become his adorable little self – and I’m watching it fulfill all over again with my daughter.

Sure, there are struggles and lots for you to learn too! I constantly look back on when I was a kid and thought my mom was such an adult and knew everything and had it so together and now I laugh because I don’t think any of us “have it all together”!

But overall I think it’s about focusing on the good and the new - and trying to pay less attention to the jeers that people try to put you down with as soon as you’re feeling confident in something that they just have to take you down a peg- the just you waits and the you don’t have any ideas… 

But again, I mean it: it just gets better

Your babies get cooler, and more fun!

Sure they take different amounts of work or strategy. But overall - WOW they’re fun! 

I remember packing up my son’s newborn clothes on Mother’s Day when he was about 5 weeks old and being so sad but also reminding my heart that it was a GOOD thing he was growing & how scary it would be if he wasn’t. And I got a taste of that when he was 6 months old and had dropped to the 4th percentile for weight and we found out he had one of the worst tongue ties our new pediatrician had ever seen… but that’s a story for another day! (in short, we got it fixed asap and he is thriving – praise God!)

I’m reminding myself of this sweet sentiment as I say goodbye to newborn days of my daughter and look forward to infant and toddler days with her knowing what fun is coming.

And reminding myself as my heart aches watching the videos from a year ago of my 2 year old son that although I miss his little self – I adore his 3 year old self so much too.

Every hard is wrapped in love. 

Every adorable moment is wrapped in hard too.

In summary mama, speaking at much to you as I am to me.

It’s a weird tightrope of in-between.

The hard days get better – and the magic keeps growing.

And you know what else – you get better too! You get better at motherhood; all that mothering you’re doing is building you! 

You were made to be a mother to the babies in your arms.

& if no one has told you recently you’re doing a great job!

It just gets better.