I'm a dog mom who had a baby

I was never one of those women who knew they were going to have kids. Pets, however, were another question.

I have been surrounded by pets since birth. We had dogs, cats, fish and birds in the house. Animals always mysteriously followed me home. New neighbors moving in? I knew all of their pets names long before I knew who the people were.

No one was shocked when I took a job at a doggy day care and studied to become a groomer. It always seemed that working and being around animals was my destiny. Even when I had an office job, I spent my free time grooming my favorite dogs and volunteering to train therapy dogs. My pets are my family. At my wedding we had seven humans and four dogs in the wedding party. My ushers were a poodle and his owner. I take this dog mom business very seriously.

Before I was married, my now husband I and talked about having kids. Neither one of us was positive we wanted any, but we needed to make sure that we were on the same page. The one thing I knew for sure was that I wanted to wait at least one year after we got married to even consider having children. I wanted to enjoy married life with our little family of two humans, four dogs and two cats. I wanted to travel, I wanted to be able to go out whenever I wanted without worrying about a babysitter.

So we did. That year turned into two years. We went to Puerto Rico, Ireland and Scotland. I visited friends and family in California and Florida. We ate out whenever we wanted and rarely turned down a night out at the bar.

Then one night, we found out that our best friends were expecting. And all of the sudden, we were talking about having kids again.

I tried to figure out why I wanted a child. It wasn't a strong maternal instinct kicking in. I wasn't going completely gaga over every new baby I saw on the street. For me, most of it tied back to my love of dogs.

I wanted to have a child in my life that I could raise to be passionate. As passionate as I am. They didn't necessarily have to be crazy about dogs like I am, (although I will admit that it would be a bit disappointing if they weren't...) but I wanted them to be passionate about something. I realized how scary our world is with people just riding through accepting what is happening around them. I wanted to raise a child who voices their opinion regardless of what it is. I want to raise someone who will stand up for what they believe in and hopefully be a voice for good.

And that is what I am trying to do. My sweet baby girl came into our lives 10 days late because she knew she had to make an entrance and wasn't going to start out on someone else's schedule. Will she be crazy about dogs like her mom? Only time will tell.