Day Five, Mama Bear Mode: 31 Days of Being A New Mom.

I wasn't quite prepared for the rush of emotions that come after having a child. My mom tried her best to explain them to me in the only way she could, "It's like a mama bear protecting her cub." 

Mama bear mode... that sounds a bit crazy, no? 

It's crazy, yes. But very, very true. No matter how hard you try to be "normal" again, it just doesn't happen. Your spirit animal now is a ginormous, 500lb grizzly bear. Which is hard for me, since I'm normally a rather calm, easy going person. But when it comes to Olive? Yepp, 500lb grizzly bear sounds about right. 

It all happens in the blink of an eye too.. You just snap. 

I'll give you an example, just for shits and giggles (It's just a figure of speech people). As I said in an earlier post, my cat Pip, believes that Olive's crib is his own gigantic kitty bed. The second he comes inside, the very first thing he does, is jump up into her crib and make himself at home. Now usually, I'm just sort of mad.. Aggravated, for a better word. 

She's not normally in her crib that much during the day, since the living room is rather far away so we wouldn't be able to hear her. 

Anyway, on this particular day, I was cleaning up our bedroom and she was in her crib sleeping. Someone let Pip inside, and of course.. what does he do? Comes barreling out of NOWHERE and jumps right on top of her. YEAH. 

In a split second I went from my normal self to mama bear mode, ripped Pipsqueak off of her, tore open the door and flung him outside. All within a matter of seconds. 

...I have never been so angry in my entire life. And sadly, I'm not kidding. I could have killed him in that moment without a second thought. 

Mama bear mode is definitely real, and an every day part in every mom's life. No matter how old their children get, that mama bear is still ready to rip anything that threatens their cubs life to death. You just need to embrace it, and know that it's a sign of love. Because, that's exactly what it is.. Undying, unconditional love. 

I never understood it, and often thought it meant that mom had a few screws loose.. but I get it now. You can't help it, it just happens. Because if something ever happened to that little bitty baby of yours, you would die. 

So, you do the only thing you know how to do, the instinctual thing.. become a mama bear. 

xo, Jess.