This new year's eve was a very enlightening one as it was my first one being a mom. Once you have a baby there are a lot of things to consider when deciding what to do on new year's eve that NEVER would've crossed your mind before! Should I go out to a fun party with my cousins and sisters?...Would I be able to get a babysitter for the night?...Or is it too cold to even take the baby out at all? All these things were running through my mind as I contemplated what we would do on our first new year's eve as a family. The closer it got to the day, the more I began to realize how very different and uneventful yet special this new years eve would be.
New York city of course, had been frigid for the past week and new year's eve was marked as the coldest in new year history! On top of that my baby had been sick the week before during Christmas, to the point that we had to rush her to the doctor and put her on a nebulizer (one of the most heart wrenching things I've had to experience thus far as a mom). We knew there was no way we could take our baby out anywhere in that freezing weather.
We decided the best thing to do was to stay home, cook dinner together, and ring in the new year just us as a family. At first the idea of spending new years just us three without any of our family members made me kind of sad, but as the day went on I realized that this IS my family now (my husband, my daughter, and I). I thought to myself what better way to celebrate my first new year's as a wife and mother than with my husband and daughter. It is not until we step into motherhood that everything that used to matter to us ceases to take hierarchy on our list of priorities and what suddenly becomes more important than anything is the well being of our children. As a mother, you instinctively become willing to sacrifice everything and anything to make sure your child is healthy.
And so we did just that! We started our day by cleaning up the apartment, my husband brought home some champagne (which of course I was only allowed to have a small glass of, thanks to breastfeeding duties) and prepped us a delicious shrimp and rice dinner. To make the night feel more special we made sure we all got dressed for the occasion. Of course just as the final 5 minute countdown was beginning for the new year, my daughter began to have a crying attack of hunger (as if she hadn't just drank a whole 4 ounces an hour ago). I was in the kitchen holding my crying baby in one arm and heating up my expressed milk for her on the other, when my husband walked in saying, "Happy New Year!" while kissing us both. My initial response was, "what?!... we missed the countdown?...it's already new year?...you're lying?!" Then I realized just how perfectly imperfect it all was and how I wouldn't have wanted to spend my new year's eve any other way...
...Sew this is LIFE!