Week 25: In it together

Like most moms-to-be, I didn’t know how others would react to the baby news. I waited to tell anyone, including my family and close friends, holding it in like a well-kept secret. As soon as it was out, everything would change—mostly for the good—but also for the different.
I wasn’t as worried about telling one of my life-long friends, Brooke, about the baby, or my little sister who is the mother of my beautiful niece. It was the friends in my immediate circle who were not yet mommies that I worried over, the people that I spent the majority of my time with. Don’t get me wrong—I knew they would be happy for me but I knew in many ways, it would be the end of an era. And my other thought: I am first. I didn’t know I would be first. How will they feel?

Two of my best friends here in Atlanta are Rudy and Stefanie. They were two of my very first friends when I moved here from Columbus, Georgia, and have been my sidekicks ever since. A couple of months into my pregnancy—OK, near my second trimester—we were having dinner at Stefanie’s, just the three of us. Someone at the table casually asked, “What’s new?” I knew this was as good a time as any to drop the bomb, the pee-stick bomb that would seemingly catapult us into adulthood.
I reached into my purse and without giving myself another moment to think, I nearly threw the test down on the kitchen table. (Cap on, ladies. Cap on.) And there it was: the plus sign heard around the world. I looked up, and I have never, I mean never, seen such shocked faces. Rudy’s eyes swelled with tears, and Stefanie began sweating profusely, fanning herself. It was half hilarious and half terrifying. This was one of my first experiences telling the news. Needless to say, I was a mess. Flash forward to my best friends offering to come by this week to help paint baby girl’s nursery. Not only were they willing to help, but also they were excited to be there. We ate pizza, they drank beer, and we filled the baby’s room with memories of us before her arrival. Just us. The girls have certainly come around. For Valentine’s Day, Rudy dropped off a onesie with little bear footies on my backdoor step in gender-neutral colors, along with a heart-shaped card. Stefanie lovingly brings up baby each time she sees me, giddily flashing my pregnant belly in the grocery store without thinking. We talk names and excitedly chat about future babies and how they will be little buds.
Yes, things are changing. And yes, I am first at this mom thing, but it is all pretty cool. We’ll make it through like we always have with each milestone. There will be weddings, job promotions, Masters degrees and moves across the country. We will all emerge with our own families and lives, unique to each of us. I’m excited to write the next chapters when my girl meets her aunts. I consider myself lucky to have so many wonderful women in my life that I don’t have the space to list by name. No matter the stage of life we are currently in, it’s nice to know we are all in it together—as women.