Trusting it

I have moments that come over me right now.

When I’m getting up at night to cuddle my little boy back to sleep, forgetting how many times I’ve been up already.

When I’m holding my toddler who is having a hard time with her emotions, my own hanging by a thread.

When I’m cooking dinner with the two of them trying to climb up my legs and into my arms which are already preoccupied with hot pots and pans.

In these moments I worry.

I wonder, “but how?”

I sink into the realisation that this will all be even harder soon.

My mind takes me to unhelpful places.

I struggle to foresee how this will all work with another child in the mix.

I get fixated on the fact that my arms are not enough already and the mental load is already so much.

And I forget.

I forget that other mothers have had more children for centuries.

I forget that I was a new mother of one and a new mother of two myself, and I adjusted eventually.

I forget that, like my eldest did when my youngest was born, my older two will adjust with me, but in their own time.

I forget how much stronger I have become through every stage so far, and how that will help me through the moments of weakness to come.

I forget that my love for my children makes me realise capabilities in myself that I never knew existed.

I forget all the times over the years I have said “I can’t” when I have, proving that “I can”.

I forget - I already know how.

Not because I have been in this exact stage which awaits me, but because I have moved through many stages before.

I know it will be by lowering my expectations even more.

By understanding that it will be harder, but I’ll have the easiest reason to face it.

By letting my love for them lead the way through the storms, and their love for me lead me in the direction I need to keep moving: forwards.

I know it always works out in the end.

That no matter how challenging it gets sometimes, I will say, “I wouldn’t change it”.

That this is something I may not feel ready for just yet, but my heart will always be prepared for.

I know it.

I do.

I just need to remind myself in these moments to keep trusting that I do.