Photo Of Mom Clutching Her Firstborn Before Her Second Is Born Goes Viral

Photographer catches that moment you realize it’s not just the two of you anymore

There is a photo circulating wildly around the internet that’s causing moms everywhere to burst into tears. If you have more than one child, chances are you distinctly remember the moment you looked at your first born and thought, “next time I see you, it won’t just be the two of us anymore.”

I’m not crying, YOU’RE CRYING.

Portland-based birth photographer Laura Paulescu snapped a photo of this mom, giving her daughter a hug before she goes off to deliver her second child. Paulescu shared the photo on her Facebook page.

“Pure sweetness,” Paulescu wrote. “Last hugs before saying goodbye to momma & the last time she would sit on that big round belly with her sister still inside.” This is the mark of a talented photographer: one who catches a moment, a feeling — not just an image.

I remember saying goodbye to my then two-year-old son before we left for the hospital to deliver my daughter. It’s a moment that will always be frozen in time for me. I had a lot of anxiety leading up to it: there was a part of me that just didn’t believe I could ever love another being as much as I loved him. And there was a small part of me that felt like I was betraying him by bringing another person into our lives.

It had been two years, we were a team. There was a huge chunk of the day – every day – that we had been spending alone together. It hurt my heart a little that the dynamic was about to change, even though I was excited to meet my new child.

Having kids is a constant reminder of how fleeting every stage of your life is. When that stage of being a mother to only one child comes to an end, that last hug signifies so much: you are saying goodbye to a time in your life that you will never have again — the time that you and your first child had alone together.

It’s a feeling your second child won’t know, and a feeling your first may not even remember if they were young enough when the second came along. But you’ll always remember that moment in time when your first made you a mother — and all the feelings that came along with new motherhood.

This picture is a “goodbye” to that. And it’s as lovely as it is heart-wrenching.

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