Sitting in an Epsom salt bath right now, 36w, waiting for my red raspberry leaf tea to steep, I remembered one reason I love the Traditional Medicinals brand so much. They have little quotes on the tags on each tea bag, and mine says “Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished” (Lao Tzu).

This actually made me take a step back from my life lately and remember to take a moment to appreciate what my body is doing.

I’m growing a human. A whole entire person who’s going to live a life uniquely his own. He’s going to have likes and dislikes, wants and needs, goals and dreams, firsts and lasts, bests and worsts. He is a human being. And I am taking a small portion of my own life to grow him from scratch.

In the grand scheme of things, the past 36 weeks has NOT been a lot of time. I’m twenty two years old and even just the time that I’ve lived away from my parents, four and a half years, has been astronomically longer and more challenging than this short time period, yet I’ve spent more time complaining about the time growing him than really much else in those four and a half years.

I suffered an abusive relationship and being the victim of an attempted murder. I got through some college. I worked three jobs at one time and still barely paid both rent and food. But my back pain, mood swings, nausea, and headaches of late are somehow more important and valid than anything else I dealt with? There is a clear finish line ahead of me for pregnancy, there’s no gray area about it. Within the next four and a half weeks at most, I WILL be holding my child in my arms. I can hold on that much longer. The physical symptoms WILL go away. The pain will be worth all of it and more.

I’ve been so ungrateful about my pregnancy since hitting the third trimester. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve said “I can’t wait for this to be over,” or “If he decides to come today, it really truly wouldn’t be the worst thing, he’s well past viability”.

Now, my beautiful baby boy, momma’s sorry she said all that. She’s so thankful you’ve slow cooked as long as you have. You’ll be healthier for it and she didn’t need to say all that. Her pain will go away. You growing as much as you can is far more important than anything else.

Thanks for reading this all the way through... Please take even just a moment today to really appreciate your baby and what an incredible thing your body is doing to grow such a wonderful miracle.