This May 12 will be a special day for Shauna Speers as she celebrates Mother’s Day with his first child, Sophie Gale-Speers, who is six months old.
Speers feels very lucky to have such a wonderful baby who she has spent a great deal of time with since her birth.
“She has been a great baby. She is a good sleeper and happy all the time. We feel incredibly lucky to have gotten the baby we did,” she said.
During her pregnancy, Speers heard a great deal of advice from mothers who told her what to expect.
“Before you have a baby people have all of the clichés. They say things like ‘get your sleep while you can’ and ‘they grow so fast.’ You roll your eyes at these people but so many of the things they tell you are true,” she said. “She is now over double her birth weight. She is no longer just a little blob that lies in my arms.”
Speers said she does not think there is anything that can prepare you for having your first child.
“Nothing happens quickly when you have a baby. You have to get them dressed and get all the gear ready to go, and then just before you leave the house they might poop in their diaper. Then you have to change them but it is all just a part of it,” she said.
She added that she has also had to change her schedule which now revolves around Sophie.
“Breast feeding, when they are at this age, is every three to four hours all day. My life exists in three to four hour blocks.”
Speers has also enjoyed sharing her love for the outdoors with her daughter.
“We cross country ski, run and bike together (with Sophie in a chariot). When she was nine weeks old we flew her into Sorcerer Lodge and she got to go skiing for the first time. Her dad carried her in a front baby carrier. We want her to be active and love the outdoors.”
Soon the family is going to share an international flight so they can all be a part of Sophie’s uncle’s wedding, which is taking place in Japan.
“We are going to get to be a part of a traditional Japanese wedding. We are going to get dressed up in kimonos and I think it will be great for her to meet her aunt and uncle.”
Speers, who works in the emergency services field, has taken time off of work to be with Sophie.
“It has been a big change in my life. It is a change of pace for me. It has gone from fast paced where I worked a lot, to now, where my job is taking care of her. It has been really neat,” she said. “I grieve that previous life once in a while. I am still involved with search and rescue, but when the pager goes off and I know I don’t get to go on the helicopter this time, it makes me a little disappointed,” she said. “At the same time this is where I am at with her. It is great to see her grow and discover new things. I realize I have to invest some time in her.”
She has also realized things about herself that she did not know before she became a mother.
“I recognize how much more patience I have. I am typically not a patient person, but with her I am all good. For her I seem to have all the patience in the world,” she said. “There is a lot that is on mom when you are the one at home with her. You get the lion’s share of what has to be done.”
Speers added that having help from Sophie’s father has also been important over the past six months.
“He (Ian) comes home from working all day and takes the baby so I get to go out and exercise for a couple of hours,” she said. “I love seeing her with him. He always says he can’t believe how much he loves her. Both of us are like that. There have been times where we have different opinions on something but it is very important to keep the lines of communication open.”
Speers said having a child has changed her perspective on having children.
“It is funny now, but I didn’t think I wanted kids for the longest time. Now that I have become a breeder I want everyone to experience it. There is nothing anybody can tell you to prepare you for it. Now that I have experienced it, I really feel this is something people should do,” she said. “We are madly in love with this little one.”
