December 7, 2017

Dear Babies,

It’s quite amazing how fast we forget things. As humans we are highly adaptable and there is clear evidence in the way we procreate. If we could remember how hard labour is and how crazy-making those few first weeks were, no one would do it again. Evidence is in our new friend, baby boy.

Baby boy is the second baby of our close friend and my immediate reaction to hearing about his birth was a pang of longing. Longing to hold a newborn, to engage in those very first steps of meeting someone you know intimately well and the peace and happiness they bring. I imagine my friend in bliss with her newborn, which I’m sure she is but I forget the rest.

The sleepless nights, the pain, the feeling like you just abandoned your first born, the mental anguish, the people wanting to come over while you bleed into a diaper. That stuff.

And I think that there’s a good lesson here which is that even when something seems terrible, it soon shall pass and you may even find yourself looking back on a time that was kind of awful with rose coloured glasses. You may even want to do it all over again.

In the meantime, I’ll inhale someone else’s newborn for now and enjoy my perfect hindsight (aka totally warped and reimagined).

xo

Mom