A New Baby Changes Everything- A Letter of Encouragement

A friend of ours just became a first time daddy, last night.

He and his wife are so excited, as they should be, but they are unaware that things will change from now on

Maybe they're starting to realize it, maybe they aren't.

You see, when a new baby comes, the world looks at you differently.

You're no longer Martha or Joe. Now you're mom and dad.



You've been waiting for this baby for 9 months or 40 weeks, give or take a few days. Until the birth of this baby, you were never able to fully fathom what it would be like to be a mom or dad. You thought you knew, but you couldn't comprehend.



I remember when I had my first born. I started crying right before I was to push. Things were going to change. There was no turning back. A baby wasn't just a hypothetical idea, it was real.

I was going to be in charge of a small human being. The implications were surreal. The responsibilities to come were unfathomable. The doubt was overwhelming.

"How will I be able to take care of him when I can't take care of myself?" I had bills to pay and things to do. Now I had that and more.

The day I had my son, I changed from a care-free, youthful twenty-two year old to an anxious, old soul, twenty-two year old mother.

The single and child-less friends that I had stopped calling and making plans with me... Maybe it was because I turned them down too many times to be with my baby. It happens, you know.

Not only that, I was no longer me. I had changed. The things that I once liked to do, no longer were things that I like to do.

As my son got older and we were blessed with a daughter for our second child, suddenly, everything I saw looked dangerous. Even worse when my youngest came around.

"Why are there holes for the kids to hang out of and fall off of on the play ground set!?!?! Why are they so high?" My husband just tells me that I'm overreacting. How did I survive childhood? I climbed and did more dangerous things than that.

I hate this contraption and yet, it's one of my kid's most favorite things to play on. I can't even count the amount of times I've had to catch them while they were dangling from this or how many times they've been crotched. Ugh!

But parenthood isn't all scary. There's joy in it, too. There's laughter and silliness. The love that you feel is unconditional. You thought that you had loved before, but a parent's love is unlike anything that you could ever experience.

These little people that you and your loved one created grow before your eyes. They're precious and you know them and they know you. Their trust in you is a huge responsibility. What you do and how you do it matters.

Like molding clay or chocolates, you're raising your babies to be extraordinary and that is extroardinary!!!!

They are the future and the future is in your hands.

So a new baby changes everything! It changes you, your spouse, your kids, your pets, your neighbors, and the world.

Like Uncle Ben said in Spiderman,"With great power comes great responsibility"

Are you ready for it?

You're going to have to be because it's already happening.

You know what? You've got this! This change doesn't happen overnight. It's a learning process and no one knows what we're doing or what really works. That's why there are so many parenting books that all contradict themselves. Nobody's perfect.

You CAN do it!

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