I sit here in our nursery on the edge of our biggest life transition yet. Just under a week to go till our due date, our hospital bags are packed, the bassinet is setup, baby clothes are washed, and our car seat is installed, and yet I feel so utterly unprepared. Not in a bad way – just in the way that I know everything is about to be different and I know there’s no possible way I could truly prepare myself for it.
No amount of reading books and asking friends and Googling my questions can prepare me for this next step of our adventure. I have a feeling that learning what it looks like to welcome a child into this world and into our family has to be experienced to be learned. And I kinda love that.
When you’re pregnant everyone tells you, “Life will never be the same!” “Everything changes when you have kids!” And a particularly annoying one, “Get all the sleep you can now!” as if you could stockpile sleep. One quick sidenote – a nurse friend of mine framed this advice differently telling me to nap when I need to nap and get lots of rest leading up to delivery because I’d need the energy for labor. Now that I can get onboard with! I have felt a little more weary lately, so it’s helpful to think of resting to prepare for labor rather than simply to make deposits to this mythical sleep bank everyone else seems to be referring to.
I know everyone’s advice is well-meaning, and I know they’re right in saying that everything is about to change. But rather than make it sound like a doomsday prophesy, why not share all the ways life is about to get sweeter? Sure there will be sleepless nights and dirty diapers, but those are the things I know I signed up for.
What I’m more interested in is what’s around the corner that I don’t even realize yet. It might be baby snuggles and sweet baby smell, the discussions of whose baby photos our babe most resembles, the joy of watching this little one learn and grow, and an intense and overwhelming love for something so tiny. But what are the other things? The things I can’t even put words to yet? Those are the ones I’m most excited about.
