It was a Friday afternoon, mama. I was approximately 934 months pregnant (but somehow with another TEN DAYS to go before my due date), and I was DONE. I was absolutely ready to have a baby, and so I gathered up all of my things from my desk at work, and I told the entire office:
I’m not coming back to work on Monday.
The overwhelming response in the office was complete disinterest, followed by a “Really?”
Me: This baby’s coming this weekend. I shan’t be returning here.
Them:
Me: I mean, I’m not having contractions or anything. I’m just done. I am emotionally done. This baby is getting evicted from my uterus.
Them: TMI, Lauren.
I went home, convinced that I would have the baby over the weekend, and on Sunday, April 1, I went into labor.
I remained in labor for 23 horrible hours, including two and a half hours of pushing.
The baby STILL did not appear.
I hadn’t slept or eaten in over 30 hours, and I was completely exhausted. And I couldn’t understand WHY nothing was going according to my plan. I WAS READY, so WHY was this baby not being born?
And then it happened.
Somewhere, my tired mind heard the doctor and the nurse conferring, and mentioning that it was probably time to get the forceps out.
In other words, there was a very clear picture of where we were going if things didn’t get moving now — and THAT was the motivation I needed. Because there was NO WAY that anyone was sticking a FORCEPS up my hoo-ha (remember, my dad reads these blogs. HI, DAD!), and so I somehow, SOMEHOW got myself to the place where I was ACTUALLY ready to get the baby out, and Welcome to the world, Daphne.
On April 2.
Because I may have THOUGHT I was ready on the Friday before, and all day on Sunday, but DAPHNE (and this is just SO TYPICAL of her) was like, “Girlfriend, YOU ARE NOT READY. I WILL TELL YOU WHEN YOU ARE READY.”
It’s kind of like (and you KNEW we were going here) when you decide to start a business. Sometimes, you think you’re ready. You have all the signs that you’re ready. You enrolled in the Free Mama Movement 2.0. You’re in the Squad. You totally want to start a business — but you’re not ready.
You’re not ready because you’re not you’re not doing the thing you need to be doing.
It’s not that you’re not trying, but the business is not progressing. And maybe what you need, is to really and fully understand the consequence of not doing the thing that you have to do, because it is hard. And you’re feeling stuck as a stay at home mom. It’s hard.
It’s LABOR hard.
But WANTING something and BEING READY are not the same thing.
And until you confront the reality of the forceps, maybe you won’t find the motivation to TRULY be ready.
Also, please, let’s take a moment to appreciate that I can make ANY story, including my BIRTH STORY into a lesson about business.
P.S. If you’ve been feeling stuck as a stay at home mom in WANTING, but you haven’t DONE THE THING yet, maybe it’s because you haven’t found THE RIGHT THING. The wonderful Kathryn Jones will be LIVE in the Facebook group TODAY. Maybe building funnels is your thing?
P.S. Feeling some imposter syndrome when you realize other moms are doing the same thing as you? No worries, mama, we have you covered in this episode of Free Mama TV on how you can turn your competition into collaboration!