How two moms are celebrating Mother's Day with their 1st child
The couple had to compromise.
— -- Figuring out what to do for Mom on Mother's Day is usually hard enough.
But for two Maryland women who welcomed their first child last December, it's been difficult trying to figure out how to celebrate each other in a unique way.
Lauren Wethers Coggins met her future wife, Essence Coggins, 11 years ago in Washington, D.C., at Howard University.
"One Howard homecoming, we kept crossing each other's paths," Wethers Coggins told ABC News. "The universe was saying, 'Can y'all at least exchange information?'"
A year later, they began dating. The Cogginses, who live in Oxon Hill, Maryland, wed in February 2014, after a three-year engagement.
Although Wethers Coggins, 32, admitted she was unsure if she'd ever marry, she always knew she wanted to be a mom.
"Starting a family was very intentional," she said. "It's not like it could happen on accident."
Coggins, 35, was on the same page.
"Growing up, I always wanted to have one child and adopt another," she said. "Even though, as I got older, having [or carrying] one was not a desire of mine."
The two decided to expand their family through at-home artificial insemination with a known donor, Wethers Coggins said.
"Essence and I were able to be a part of it ... with a cup. It was nice to be able to take the doctor's office and the sperm bank out of the equation," said Wethers Coggins, who carried their child.
She continued, "I have a whole new respect for the creation of life. It can be stressful when you want to create a life and it's not necessarily — poof! — we can do it."
Wethers Coggins, a stay-at-home mom, gave birth to a girl, Averie Wethers Coggins, on Dec. 23, 2016.
The two women admitted they had to "decide what roles would be like," Wethers Coggins said, but it happened "intuitively."
"I'm her gestational parent, so I'm the traditional mom," Wethers Coggins explained. "She's breast-fed, so we have that uniqueness."
In their household, Coggins is referred to as Mahtu, or Ma too.
"Being able to shape and develop a human being of my own is a great feeling," Coggins told ABC News. "I am a teacher and live a life of giving. It's nice to be able to literally reap what I sow."
Still, when it came to Mother's Day, the two had to compromise.
"Nobody really gets a break," Wethers Coggins said. "For you to leave, then I'd have the baby, so what am I going to do? You want to feel like it's your day because it's your first Mother's Day ... but you have to be selfless."
The two went back and forth about whether they each should have alone time or spend the day together as a family. Eventually, they decided on the latter.
"In an ideal world, I'd love to take a weekend trip somewhere beautiful ... with Lauren," Coggins said. "Just to get away and relax together."
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