guest post: my favorite moment during my very first week of motherhood, by Joy Cho

Joy Cho, from the ever inspirational Oh Joy! is a new mama too! {Her beautiful little Ruby is only a few weeks older than Ever} Amazingly, she agreed to share her new mama moments with us - which I am thrilled about! Thanks so much Joy! And congrats again mama!

A week or so before my baby came, I was at a friend's house and she showed me this book, When You Were Born, that she received after delivering her first baby. There was a line in the book that describes a mother seeing her baby for the first time, and the mother exclaims, "I know you!" Those words brought tears to my eyes as I could only imagine having that feeling someday soon. When Ruby came into our lives (a week and a half early), my labor came and went so fast, that I barely had a moment to realize what had happened or get as emotional as I thought I would during her delivery. Although I knew she was once in my belly and now out in the world, it seemed so surreal that it just didn't hit me right then. Later that night, when we had her in our hospital room, I looked down at her and she started hiccuping. Those were the same hiccups I had felt in my belly multiple times a day for months, and here she was out in the world doing the same thing...hiccuping multiple times a day. I found myself looking at her and saying out loud, "I know you!" because at that moment, I realized that the person I had been carrying around for nine months, who was physically closer to me than anyone else in the world, was finally here. She had the same personality I grew to know and love just by feeling her movements previously in my belly. And now I have this chance to get to know her with the same quirks but with us now as part of our family.

family portrait by Rifle Paper Co.

all photos by Oh Joy!