Sandy Sull had her eyes closed during most of the labour when her first baby was born.
It was a long 36 hours at Lions Gate Hospital. She finally opened her eyes when someone in the room
announced, "It's a boy!" That moment stands out as the most poignant one of the delivery, says Sull. Soon after, as she held her son Gavin for the first time, a nurse asked for the baby back to record his measurements and weight.
"And I just remember looking at her and thinking I don't think you're going to get him from me," she recalls with a laugh.
Just 18 months later, Sull was welcoming her second son, Rohin.
Although Gavin was planned, Rohin was a pleasant surprise. Sull says she was stunned when the doctor told her she was pregnant again. Gavin was just over a year old, and Sull was ready to return to work. Daycare had been arranged and Sull says she was just getting back into her routine and realized, "Oh wow, I'm doing it all over again."
She says now she is glad Rohin came along when he did because she is done with maternity clothes, and she likes that the brothers are so close in age.
Sull is originally from Surrey but her husband was born and raised on the North Shore so his parents are close by to help out as needed. Her own parents also stepped in to assist the new mother, and Sull says it was great even
just having someone cook for the family or watch the baby so she could take a shower.
"It was a really big help to have them," she says.
When she was growing up, Sull had lots of kids around her: cousins, nieces and nephews. That's part of the reason why she wanted to have kids, and she says she and her husband both always knew they wanted to be parents.
"I knew I was going to have kids. I always wanted three. Harmon wanted two. Now that I have two, I'm happy with two," she says with a laugh.
When asked if she was ready to be a mom, Sull says probably not. She had decided she wanted to finish her accounting designation before becoming a mom, which she did, and that her and her husband were financially stable before having kids, which they were. Still, she wondered if they were really prepared.
"I don't think you ever are," she says, noting parents just kind of get thrown into it.
She did, however, notice that she was more relaxed with her second son than she was with her first son.
"I found with the first one you're excited but you're also kind of nervous because you're going to be a parent and you don't know and everything associated with the labour and delivery and nursing, it's all unknown."
By the time the second one came along, she knew what each little scream or burp meant. She knew that sometimes a whimper or a cry just meant her son wanted to be comforted, and "When there's something wrong, you'll know that something is wrong."
The hardest part of being a mom so far? "As soon as you get into a routine, they change," reports Sull.
When asked what the best part of being a mom is she answers quickly: "A lot, lots. Too many to count."
She is able to name a few: Random hugs and kisses, and when her boys ask her to sit with them to do a puzzle or watch a movie.
Sull says one of the lessons she learned from her parents that she wants to pass on to her kids is the value of family.
"Our families are extremely important to us, we're there for each other all the time."
This story originally appeared in the North Shore News special section calle Mother's Day, which featured profiles of local moms.
