Carli Hamilton is a social media influencer with SMA type 2 living in Salt Lake City. She was terrified when she found out she was pregnant. But today she shares about the surprise and delight she’s found in being a parent to her daughter, B.

l have a little girl named B, and she is 4, almost 5. I remember when I found out I was pregnant — it was unplanned — it was the scariest that I have ever gone through. Our whole lives having SMA, we’re told that we can’t do things: We can’t drive, we won’t go to school, we won’t get married, we won’t have children, we probably won’t have a great quality of life. And so when I got that positive pregnancy test, I was terrified.

Back almost five years ago I didn’t know a single woman who had been pregnant and had a child with SMA. And it felt very lonely and very scary. But I am here to tell you that that quickly left.

And once I started growing B in my belly and I could feel her kick, and then when she made her arrival, and every single stage after, has just showed me how absolutely incredible people with SMA are and how incredible our bodies are. My body carried my daughter to 36 weeks and it now takes care of this very energetic, very hyper, very active 4- almost 5-year-old.

My daughter loves to play outside. She loves to snuggle. She loves to ride on my lap, and these are all things I never thought that I would have. I think being a parent with SMA is even sweeter because we are told our whole lives that we probably will never be a parent, that we will probably never have kids. And so when you get something that you probably, deep down, always wanted but just knew you probably would never have — man, that bliss is a bliss that I cannot even explain.

She has just learned and adapted to what I can and cannot do, and those are very different to things that her dad can and cannot do. And I think that a lot of people worry about like that physical part about being a parent, and yeah, it can be very hard. But the most important thing about being a parent is being there emotionally and mentally and physically. In a ways, like yeah, you might not be able to scoop your child up and, you know, console them when they hurt.

But you know what? When B gets hurt, she immediately gets up and runs to me and climbs up to me. And I’m still there for her physically even though I can’t physically scoop her up.

You know your body and if you have any desire to be a parent, I would follow that desire because it is the most rewarding thing in the entire world and I absolutely love being a mom with SMA.