A Celebration of 25 Years
My husband, Tony, and I are going to be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary this month. It's been a wonderful time—all of it, the beginning, middle and still-middle.
A Look Back
The dating was amazing and my wedding day, though not without drama (we were blending families), is still the happiest day of my life; I remember every single detail. Getting used to each other's habits and friends naturally ebbed and flowed in and out of each other's space. The conversations—I should say, disagreements—about bringing our children together and disciplining them were, to put it mildly, intense. Having conversations about having more children was mixed, and telling him I was going to have a baby was a surprise to both of us, more than once!
Hearing for the first time the baby's heartbeat feels like a miracle. Seeing your child for the first time on the sonogram and saying to one another how beautiful the baby is, even though you can barely make out the face, is an indescribable moment. You then move on to try and distinguish what is or is not between those tiny little legs. The whole pregnancy, the mood swings, the fascination with the fact that human skin can actually stretch that far is amazing and a very personal journey.
It can also be difficult! Trying to have sex when you feel you're a mountain—because you are!—is not pretty. The delivery room stories are something that will make for great fodder after you come home and the memory stays with you always!
All in all, having children dramatically changes your life and your relationship forever. You are never the same, you never feel the same way about a lot of things and you begin a lifelong vigil of worrying over everything! Tony and I have seven children altogether, so I'm in a constant state of flux! (Tony has three from a previous marriage and I have two, plus we have two daughters together, Alexandra and Arianna.)
Get Cristina's secret to a happy, long-lasting marriage
A Look Back
The dating was amazing and my wedding day, though not without drama (we were blending families), is still the happiest day of my life; I remember every single detail. Getting used to each other's habits and friends naturally ebbed and flowed in and out of each other's space. The conversations—I should say, disagreements—about bringing our children together and disciplining them were, to put it mildly, intense. Having conversations about having more children was mixed, and telling him I was going to have a baby was a surprise to both of us, more than once!
Hearing for the first time the baby's heartbeat feels like a miracle. Seeing your child for the first time on the sonogram and saying to one another how beautiful the baby is, even though you can barely make out the face, is an indescribable moment. You then move on to try and distinguish what is or is not between those tiny little legs. The whole pregnancy, the mood swings, the fascination with the fact that human skin can actually stretch that far is amazing and a very personal journey.
It can also be difficult! Trying to have sex when you feel you're a mountain—because you are!—is not pretty. The delivery room stories are something that will make for great fodder after you come home and the memory stays with you always!
All in all, having children dramatically changes your life and your relationship forever. You are never the same, you never feel the same way about a lot of things and you begin a lifelong vigil of worrying over everything! Tony and I have seven children altogether, so I'm in a constant state of flux! (Tony has three from a previous marriage and I have two, plus we have two daughters together, Alexandra and Arianna.)
Get Cristina's secret to a happy, long-lasting marriage
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