My sister and I are regularly accused by our husbands of being obsessed with our iPhones. And maybe we are. But it's those brilliant little devices that enabled us to share a remarkable journey together over the past year. Perhaps I should start at the beginning...
She's the older sister, I'm the baby of the family. She made all the mistakes first, and I either learned from them or made the same ones but got away with it (mostly). :-) In all honesty, we weren't very close for much of our childhood and adolescence. We are polar opposites in so many ways, it was often very hard to find common ground. Thankfully, during our 20s we gradually found our way into a genuine friendship. That friendship has only gotten stronger in the past few years, and I can honestly say she's now the best friend I'd always hoped to have in a sister. So when she told me that she was pregnant (I was already pregnant with Emma at the time) and that our babies would only be 3 months apart, I was beyond thrilled. She'd been trying for a baby for over 2 years, and I have to admit it felt a little bittersweet when I got pregnant before her. We had daydreamed about being pregnant at the same time, what a blessing it would be for our family, and now it was actually happening! The only downside to all this was that my sister lives in Northern Virginia (where we grew up) and I live here in Portland... for as much as we were going to be able to share in the coming months, it was hard not to think about what we'd be missing - shopping trips, sharing maternity clothes, lazy Sundays laid up on the couch with our big bellies, being there for each other's births. But that's where technology really saved the day...
We texted and talked pretty regularly before we were pregnant, but our iPhones really got a workout these past 12 months. It felt like we were in constant communication... commiserating about aches and pains, drooling over cravings, sending pics of our nurseries and cute baby outfits, asking each other the stupid, irrational questions we felt silly asking our doctors. And when we weren't texting or talking, we were playing yet another round of Words with Friends, feeling bad for winning when the other was having a particularly rough day. It felt like we were sharing every moment of our pregnancies, even though we were on opposite sides of the country.
And when my nephew was finally making his big arrival last week our phones allowed me to be there for my sister even though I couldn't be there in person.
(We exchanged much more personal and intense texts and calls throughout her labor, but you get the idea.)
And it was on my phone that I saw little Zachary for the first time...
I can't help but think about how different (and suckier) our experience would have been even just a decade ago. I feel so grateful for the technology that my husband rolls his eyes at (despite being an iPhone owner himself), and for my beautiful, amazing sister. Our pregnancy journey has come to an end, but a whole new journey as mothers has just begun... and when you're up nursing at 3am, it's really nice to know your sister is also up nursing - and playing Words with Friends.