There’s a whole world built around tracking your baby’s firsts. Everyone’s watching them grow—but this Mother’s Day, we’re turning the spotlight on you. We asked Little Spoon parents (employees and Spooners!) to share the milestones that don’t make the baby book, but are damn worth celebrating. Turns out there are a lot of them.
THE IDENTITY SHIFT
The moment you realize you’re the grown-up now.
One day you’re just a person who had a baby, and then somewhere between the first diaper change and the first time you caught them before they hit the floor, you realized: woah, I’m doing the damn thing.
“The first time I put their needs before mine without even thinking. No pause. No resentment. Just instinct. That’s when it hit me: I’m not just ‘taking care’ of a baby. I am a mom.” — Sophia W.
“I felt every emotion at once. Nervous, excited, overwhelmed and proud. It hit me so deeply that this little boy’s whole world was in my hands, and I was really becoming his safe place in real time.” — Janessa H.
“All the practice runs with my stroller did not prepare me for the real thing. Why did it feel like I was doing everything wrong? But that was the moment it hit me… I’m actually a mom and I’m doing mom things!” — Bari T.
LEARNING TO TRUST YOURSELF
Turning up the volume on your inner voice.
Everyone has an opinion about how you should do it “right”. The FB groups have opinions, your sister has opinions—and for a while, you take all of it in: the schedules, the charts, the this-is-what-worked-for-us. Until eventually, you say F it and just listen to yourself. And when that day comes, it’s GLORIOUS.
“Something shifted. That was the first time I realized I don’t need to look outward every time. I know her. And I can trust that. Now I live by my intuition, because I know that it’s stronger than any version of motherhood that isn’t ours.” — Adya S.
“The time I took her to a quick doctor’s appointment and didn’t bring the diaper bag… Immediate blowout. Everywhere. On her, on me… and I had nothing. It all worked out. It was one of those moments where I realized I was becoming a mom in real time—not because I had it all together, but because I didn’t… and I handled it anyway.”— Haley V.
THE WEIGHT OF IT
Recognizing what’s at stake (and giving yourself grace anyway).
Nobody tells you about the specific feeling of having som
eone’s entire life depend on you. Not in a dramatic way, just in the ordinary, daily, completely staggering way. Even through the mundane moments; driving the car, making the calls, having to ALWAYS know what to do. And yet you just do it.
“I suddenly became hyper aware of everything around me like, ‘I have someone’s whole life in the backseat that I am completely responsible for’—and that’s when motherhood really hit me.” — Laurie B.
“The first time I drove my son solo I felt I forgot how to drive after all these years.”— Eden G.
The compulsive rear-view checks? So real.
YEAH, YOU DID THAT
Remember to give yourself your flowers.
There are moments where you look around at what you’ve done and it just hits you. Not in a way anyone else would understand or even notice. Just an internal, completely earned “I did that sh*t”.
“It was 3:30am one morning and I remember looking into the fridge at full bottles of milk like ‘I just did that. I pumped all that milk for MY baby. She’s living because of ME.’ Pretty cool thing us parents do.” — Kaitlin G.
Damn right.
RECLAIMING YOURSELF
Finding your way back to you.
At some point you realize you’ve been in a “waiting” period: waiting to feel normal again, to have time again, to be yourself again, to wear those jeans again and so on. And then one day, you stop waiting and you just do the thing. Because your identity doesn’t just halt when you become a parent—it multiplies.
“The first time I did something for myself without guilt. It wasn’t anything huge — I went to the gym. That day, I realized taking care of myself is also taking care of her.” — Kayla B.
“I had a moment of ‘wow I did this.’ I kept my promise to myself. I’m a parent now and I just traveled through Europe with my baby and even though it was harder, it was all worth it.” — Harlie L.
“The moment I stopped waiting to feel like myself again and just… brought her along. A beer garden, my oldest friends who didn’t have kids yet, and my daughter. My old life and my new one at the same table. I didn’t have to choose. That was the moment I realized I wasn’t becoming a different person. I was just becoming more.” — Katie S.
“We were nervous about everything, like being around too many people or whether he’d cry and disturb everyone around us. But what we found on the other side of that anxiety was a wonderful night out. It truly felt like the old us. The ones who loved a long dinner and a glass of wine. Except now, there were three of us.” — Margo A.
THE FIRSTS DON’T STOP COMING
Passed down, generation after generation.
The worry, the instinct, the not-knowing-but-doing-it-anyway. Your mom had a first time too…and so did hers…and so did hers! Every generation of mothers standing in the same doorway, feeling the same thing, figuring it out from scratch.
“One ‘other first’ that caught me off guard wasn’t when I became a mom, it was when I watched my child become one. It felt like pride and heartbreak all at once. Like watching your whole world grow up in a single moment.” — Nikki R.
The baby’s been hitting milestones since day one. So have you. So will they. And when they do, you’ll be right there—feeling it all over again, for the first time.
Happy Mother’s Day from all of us at Little Spoon!
