SUYL Friday - Advice for New Moms

I'm linking up today with href

=http://www.kellyskornerblog.com/2013/11/advice-for-new-moms.html>Kelly's Korner for her Show Us Your Life series. The topic this week is "Advice for New Moms." Let me know if you link up - I'd love to read your thoughts!
Don't worry about your house!

Seriously. It'll be there when they're grown, and yeah - you may have to replace carpets, but let's be honest - your  baby is precious and the time you have with them is short, so make the most of it. Clean while they're asleep. Hire a cleaning lady to come in once a month and deep clean floors, bathrooms, etc. I promise that $50 is worth your sanity. And time.

This too shall pass.

One night, Michael and I were deep into American Idol and Sara woke up. I'd put her to bed at 7, and she didn't normally wake up at this time. I remember rocking her and singing This Little Light of Mine, and I thought...one day I am going to miss this. One day I am going to WISH she would cry for me to rock her. Those days are quickly fading for me. At the mature age of 6, she only wants me to rock her when she's sick. We still have the rocking chair (it was my Grandma's) but it sits in the corner of the office, with a big red laundry basket of craft activity and other homeschool books in it.

I also remember, in our NICU days with June, begging God to please hurry up and get us home. Get us out of the NICU, get us a healthy baby, no more doctors appointments, and get us back to normal.

Whatever normal is - because obviously OUR normal is just not the same as others!

Michael kept telling me to be patient. That one day I'd look back and say that those were some of the best times of my life. And they were. I wish I had taken more time to cherish those days there. I wish I had not been so worried - because whatever was to have happened, it was all planned out before I was even born. If we had celebrated bringing a baby home, or if we had celebrated her going to Heaven, God would have been there right with us every single step of the way.

Let those little old ladies in Wal-Mart play with your baby.

Yes, I know. It's kind of weird for random women to come up and want to tickle your babies feet, or kiss her cheek, or whatever it may be that day. But for the love of God, just let them do it! They probably haven't been around a baby in who knows how long, and we all know how comforting a child can be. I had one little elderly woman take Sara's sock off to tickle her tootsies. And that was okay with me, because I saw the sparkle in her faded blue eyes.

Video EVERYTHING.

This is my biggest regret. I have tons of pictures, but there's nothing like video.

Cherish every last second.

One day, I thought I had an earache. I went to the ER, they started talking about doing a large amount of bloodwork and that I'd be there for a while.

 Mike and the girls were there, and since I figured it would be several hours, I sent them home. 

They were starting to get a little scared of all the needles anyway. 

I didn't kiss my girls goodbye.

I told them I'd be home to tuck them in bed.

Four days later, I was in a coma with the doctors telling my family I had hours left.

I didn't come home for three months, and I've spent about half of the last two years away from them.

That show that's on TV that's really interesting? That video game? That book you're reading?

They won't matter in 25 years.

But those memories you missed making will tear your heart to pieces.