I never expected to be married and spending my days washing poop off of my baby's bottom at the age of 24. I thought I would be traveling, living in an apartment, and working at my dream job. And somewhere in between all the work and play, I hoped to be whisked off of my feet by my Prince Charming who would get down on one knee, hand me a glass slipper, and ask if I wanted to play house.
God had other plans. Funny how that works.
My name is Alyssa Gamlin. I am a wife, a mother, and a blogger.
And despite the hundreds of diapers overtaking my garbage can, I wouldn't change my life for the world.
I met my Prince Charming when we were rock climbing in 2007. It wasn't your typical romance story but within weeks, we knew that we wanted to be married. A month after I finished school, Jonathan and I tied the knot on January 31, 2009.
After enjoying three months of newly-wedded bliss, I purchased a pregnancy test from Walgreens in a moment of weakness that occurred roughly once every 30 days. With no pregnancy symptoms, I squatted over that little stick and saw two blue lines.
Once I recovered from the shock and scraped my jaw off of the floor, I told Jonathan that we were expecting. In retrospect, I could have picked a different time to break the news, since it was difficult to resuscitate him while we were driving to church. Thankfully, he survived and we began to embrace our new roles as parents.
The next nine months involved a lot of challenges, which you can read about here and here. There were ups and downs in my pregnancy, mostly caused by my severe Diet Pepsi withdrawal, which seemed to require the full nine months to work through my system.
Nathaniel came into the world on December 30, 2009 and once I was happily re-caffeinated in my first post-baby meal, I set about learning what it meant to be a mommy. Somewhere in the midst of changing explosive diapers and trying to keep my milk from shooting across the room, I realized that motherhood isn't all glass slippers and pink tiaras. It's about taking it one day at a time, keeping bits and pieces of my sanity, and praying that God gives me just enough patience to muster a hug when my child screams for the ten thousandth time in an hour.
Those lessons would become invaluable when Jonathan and I decided to brave toddlerhood and begin adding to our family. I found out that I was expecting our second child early in December and survived the following nine months thanks solely to Nabisco's Saltine crackers and Wendy's french fries.
On August 16, 2011 I went into labor and successfully resisted the use of both medication and naughty words as I delivered my baby girl, Evelyn. Since that day, our lives have gone from crazy to hectic with a constant spiral of poopy diapers, tantrums, and snuggles.
This is my journey into motherhood. And even though I may not have showered in the last week and there are toys on every flat surface in my house, I'll be shoving my feet into those glass slippers. Even if I have to wear them while I vacuum.
God had other plans. Funny how that works.
My name is Alyssa Gamlin. I am a wife, a mother, and a blogger.
I met my Prince Charming when we were rock climbing in 2007. It wasn't your typical romance story but within weeks, we knew that we wanted to be married. A month after I finished school, Jonathan and I tied the knot on January 31, 2009.
After enjoying three months of newly-wedded bliss, I purchased a pregnancy test from Walgreens in a moment of weakness that occurred roughly once every 30 days. With no pregnancy symptoms, I squatted over that little stick and saw two blue lines.
Once I recovered from the shock and scraped my jaw off of the floor, I told Jonathan that we were expecting. In retrospect, I could have picked a different time to break the news, since it was difficult to resuscitate him while we were driving to church. Thankfully, he survived and we began to embrace our new roles as parents.
The next nine months involved a lot of challenges, which you can read about here and here. There were ups and downs in my pregnancy, mostly caused by my severe Diet Pepsi withdrawal, which seemed to require the full nine months to work through my system.
Nathaniel came into the world on December 30, 2009 and once I was happily re-caffeinated in my first post-baby meal, I set about learning what it meant to be a mommy. Somewhere in the midst of changing explosive diapers and trying to keep my milk from shooting across the room, I realized that motherhood isn't all glass slippers and pink tiaras. It's about taking it one day at a time, keeping bits and pieces of my sanity, and praying that God gives me just enough patience to muster a hug when my child screams for the ten thousandth time in an hour.
Those lessons would become invaluable when Jonathan and I decided to brave toddlerhood and begin adding to our family. I found out that I was expecting our second child early in December and survived the following nine months thanks solely to Nabisco's Saltine crackers and Wendy's french fries.
On August 16, 2011 I went into labor and successfully resisted the use of both medication and naughty words as I delivered my baby girl, Evelyn. Since that day, our lives have gone from crazy to hectic with a constant spiral of poopy diapers, tantrums, and snuggles.
This is my journey into motherhood. And even though I may not have showered in the last week and there are toys on every flat surface in my house, I'll be shoving my feet into those glass slippers. Even if I have to wear them while I vacuum.
