On the flip side, Maha says her life was completely different. She wasn’t doing things she used to love doing for herself because she didn’t have the time or ener- gy, didn’t want to leave her son, and didn’t want to spend extra money on those kinds of things. “I just felt so many different emotions and ups and downs, just the hormonal shifts alone. You go through much change. Even if you’re not depressed clinically, you have the baby blues at least, and you’re crying a lot of the time for no apparent reason,” Maha says. She finds joy in seeing how her son mir- rors her and her husband, seeing him learn things, seeing him enjoy something. “The joys are endless, you can’t list them all.” Maha says it’s the little moments that make the world melt away. For example, she talks about her son being at a point in life where he always wants his mama. “It’s annoying sometimes that he only wants me to do things, but at the same time, I know one day he’s not going to want me to do anything for him, and so I’m just going to cherish this right now, because he wants me. I’m going to be sad in the future when he doesn’t.” She had said it out loud, and her son heard her and asked what she was sad about. Maha told him, and he said, “I will be sad, too.” One of the biggest challenges Maha finds is continuing to work on just being calm and being able to hold the space and support her son while holding some boundaries sometimes. She says it’s not about giving in, but just being there for him while he’s having a hard time without losing her own cool. As a family, they love eating, moving, and connecting with people. “My husband and I are both active in different ways. We met at the gym at the time, but we love to do things that involve movement, wheth- er it’s some form of exercise or hiking, or baseball for my son.” For parents, Maha says it’s important to learn from the noise of all the advice given, but try not to get overwhelmed by it. She adds that a big part of parenting is trusting your gut, as a mom especially. “It’s a strong intuition.”
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