Why you need mom (or new parent) friends

I've never really been for one who makes situational friends.  Or whatever they call that.  You know, like you're getting married and then all of a sudden you hang out with these women who are also getting married cause you're going through the same experience?  Yeah, no.

But I find that motherhood is different.

In short, though it's probably the best thing you've ever done in your life, caring for a newbie is quite....isolating.  There's great people you can surround yourself with - your partner, moms, MILs, sisters, aunts, cousins, friends, etc.  Not that they're not important and very valued at this time (PLEASE, stay longer so you can cook my next meal too!).  But they're not always going to want to hear poop or sleeping stories...all day.

Not a lot of my friends have kids.  But a few of my friends have delivered already this year, and there's a couple more to come.  E and I have been friends since college.  We even got married the same summer but I moved across town, so we didn't hang out as much after pharmacy school.  Imagine our excitement when we found out that we were both pregnant, and due in the same month!  E's daughter is 10 days older than AJ.  I remember the first time E and her husband came over to our house to visit AJ, I was SO excited to see them.  I mean, yeah we're friends and all, but never really "let's talk about baby's poop and spit up" type of friends.  Hahaha, for our first visit, we had pizza and talked about ...you guessed it.  Poop.  :)

There's something nice and (safe?) about sharing our daily challenges and milestones with another new mom, who, even if she isn't going through the same thing, can take it in and appreciate it.  There's also something nice about going shopping together and laughing together at the fact that nothing fits anymore (and also having someone to hold your baby while you go to the bathroom!).  A mom friend is someone you can look at for encouragement and motivation.  When I see that things are working out for her, I have faith motherhood really is do-able. and that things can work out for us too. More than anything else for me though, there's something calming about knowing that you're not alone, someone's going through this also, and who knows, maybe she's also looking outside at the moon right now, at 4:30 AM cause her baby also won't got the f*** to sleep.  :)

We're taking the babies to the zoo tomorrow.  I can't wait!