Those very first moments after having just given birth are by far the most intense of your life.
What I remember most is that feeling of getting those brand new, warm and slippy babies placed in my arms. Everything else just melts away.
It’s a combination of things, of course, that makes you not remember the exact fragments of what happened in those moments after birth. The exhaustion. The sheer relief it is over. The joy of meeting your baby for the very first time. You are a bundle of hormones and tears and happy happy delirium. It is a moment so profound you will wish you could stop the clocks and bottle it up, trust me.
I do however remember what my first words to my babies were – much as I can’t remember much else. With my five-year-old, I could feel her being born and asked the midwife: “What is it, what is it??” The midwife, knowing how much I had waited for this very moment, simply lifted her up to me and said: “I’ll let you see that for yourself”. Then, to my husband-to-be: “It’s Nahla.” (We had agreed on names already, whether the baby turned out to be a boy or a girl.) When three years later my little boy was born, the moment was in many ways much the same. When I finally (after a lot of “I can’t do this anymore”!) got him in my arms and discovered I had a baby boy, I remember whispering “Hi Luca” to him. My boy.
Recently, some American mamas shared what the first words they shared with their babies were. As predicted, some are sweet. Some hilarious. And some just filled with pure and simple relief:
1. “We did it, baby!” – Lacy
2. “That wasn’t as bad as I thought!” — Danielle
3. “I just need a minute.” — Dana
4. “Oh my God, she’s a girl!” — Elizabeth
5. “I can’t believe it’s over! I can’t believe it’s over!” — Jaclyn
6. “I’m exhausted! Why does she feel so heavy?” — Melanie
7. “Holy shit!” — Kristen
8. “It’s you.” — Marie
9. “Thank goodness he’s out!” — Betsy
10. “What time is it? That was the fastest labor ever!” — Echo
11. “You look like a 3-month-old!” — Rachel
12. “I knew you were a girl!” — Ravyn
Do YOU remember what your first words to your babies were? Send me and e-mail and let me know at Trine.Jensen@HerFamily.ie
