Forever Etched in My Mind

What is your most memorable moment as a mother?

This question posted by Momma Finally proved a difficult one to answer.  It is nearly impossible to cite just one memorable moment as motherhood is filled with so many precious moments each worthy to be remembered through eternity. I have been a mother for merely three years but it seems that I now have enough memories of time well-spent with my children to last me a lifetime.

I shall try to answer this question with three answers, one for each of my three children.

What I would consider my most memorable moment with my eldest daughter Jade was when we finally got to take her home from the hospital two months after she was born.  She was born prematurely and weighed only 1060 grams at birth.  She was also placed at the neonatal intensive care unit with her twin immediately after birth.  Between the two of them, we were actually more worried about Jade as she was smaller and was already in fetal distress prior to my stat ceasarian operation.  In the first two months of her life, Jade’s bed was an isolette in the hospital nursery where she fought a great fight against jaundice, infection, etcetera, etcetera.  Although my breasts were overflowing with milk then, my little Jade’s frail digestive system couldn’t process the proteins in breastmilk.  Instead of nursing from my breasts, she was given hydrolyzed whey protein through a tube in her mouth.  For two months, our bonding time was limited to a few hours each day when I could cuddle her for a short while, watch her wriggling inside the isolette, and sing to her the lullabies I sang when they were still in my womb. Without question, the very day that we were able to bring her home was a very memorable one. After two months of waiting, it was only then that I felt that I was truly her mother as she was now completely under my care.

Jake, oh, I don’t ever want to forget a single memory I have of her. The way she wiggled her hands and feet inside the isolette, the look in her eyes when we would visit her… that look, as if she had nary a trouble despite the tubes sticking out of her body.  In her seven days of life, she underwent three surgeries, yet, there was no trace of pain in her face.  She would look at us with those beautiful innocent eyes. The memories I have of Jake are poignant ones.  The one that I hold most precious though is when I got to embrace her tightly.  She had already gone with Jesus to God’s beautiful garden but I asked if I could be given a chance to hold her close.  She was all bundled up tightly in a blue hospital blanket looking so peaceful it seemed she was just asleep. I was silently praying then she would wake up and everything would be fine. Until now, I still vividly remember that very moment when I first held her close to my heart.

On a lighter note, my most unforgettable memory of Jakei was when I first saw him in the delivery room.  I had given birth through ceasarian section again so I was fully awake when he was yanked out of my womb. Following their standard procedure, the doctors cleaned him first and wrapped him in a blanket before they brought him to me.  And when I saw him, my eyes widened in great shock to see the plump rosy cheeks of my huge baby boy.  In my mind I was thinking, “How the heck did he fit inside me?”.  You see, my little boy weighed 8 pounds and 4 ounces and seemed really bloated at birth.

My children are still young and I still have a long way to go.  My journey as a mother would be filled with moment that convey joy, sadness, pain, and whatever else.  Motherhood is truly a myriad of emotions conveying the many wonderful memories forever etched in our minds.