Who Is Molly?

What I didn't realize about having a second baby was that I'd have to learn how to love a baby all over again. Molly isn't like Lucy, not one tiny bit. Lucy energizes and amuses me. She's like a little mini-me, bustling around and doing what needs to be done. I love her unlike any other person because I know what she has inside her; she has me. I know that we'll butt heads over and over, but she's such an endearing little thing.

Now that I have Molly, I understand Andrew's bond with Lucy a little better. Molly is to me what Lucy is to Andrew. She's this magical piece of the person I fell in love with 6 years ago. She's so much like her daddy and she soothes me. Where Lucy gets me fired up and gives me energy, Molly just gazes at me and brings me peace in the same way that I energize and Andrew calms. I think Andrew feels the same way about Lucy, who is so much like the person he married.

When I first felt Molly kick, I couldn't ignore how powerful she was. She bruised me up until the moment she came out screaming. I knew that she was a little prizefighter from the minute I felt her moving inside me. She was a very steady little thing, always measuring right on track and getting the job done to perfection. When she came out, she latched on perfectly. Now that she's bigger and my milk supply is regulating, she doesn't howl in impatience like Lucy used to. Molly just waits quietly and nurses happily when the milk comes down.

I don't see Andrew in Lucy. I never have, not once. I've never even really thought she looks like him. I see Andrew in Molly every time I look at her. From her steady eyes to her patient sighs to her easy-going manner, she's a little copy of him. When Molly was born, she just sort of blinked at me and settled in like we'd been friends for years, just like her daddy did when we met years ago.

When we named Molly, I thought of "The Unsinkable Molly Brown." What makes me smile is that the reason we did the c-section for Molly was because her heartbeat kept floating back up. She was ready to come out, but she just kept floating a little too high. To me, that's pretty unsinkable. When the Carpathia docked and Molly Brown was asked how she survived the sinking of the Titanic, she replied, "Typical Brown luck. We're unsinkable."
When something good happens to us, Andrew always tells me it's the Cooke luck. I think he considers himself unsinkable, just like Molly Brown.

Molly Rose is quickly charming her way into our hearts and I know that the life ahead of her will be charmed like her Daddy's. From the moment of her conception, Molly was part of Andrew's luck. We celebrated her before we even had a positive pregnancy test, because Andrew was confident that things would go our way and we'd get lucky the first time around. From writing her due date in the sand before we could confirm she'd been conceived, to buying souvenirs for her while we were still trying, Molly's start was a perfect example of Andrew's confident take on life and his effervescent pride in his "luck." From the moment we imagined her, she was ours.

And now she's here and we're so, so lucky to have her, our Unsinkable Molly Rose.