Welcome to our household. It feels a bit like the above scenario. We’ve got a new baby girl to be born on the 20th of this month, and do you think we’re ready? Heck no.
My wife folds and sorts baby clothes, ooohing and aawwhhing at each little pink pair of trousers. I sit in the kitchen processing pigs wool, my daughter plays with her new Christmas toys. It’s a bit eery. It’s a calm before a storm. Its as though we’ve given in to the fact that the baby is coming, and there’s not much we can do to stop it, regardless of how much stuff still needs to be done.
Carpets to clean, walls to paint, cribs to assemble, furniture to move, drawers to fill, diapers to store, walls to decorate. None of it done, 16 days until she’ s here. My life is such a blur already, these tasks are hardly a blip on my radar. I’ll squeeze them in between dyeing sessions.
Diapers? Its been so long since I’ve changed one. Swaddling? Does the blanket go under or over first? Fragile, little, light babies.
Babies…They are kind of scary, you know. Even if you’ve had one. You forget how little, how helpless they really are. You forget how audible they can be when they don’t get what they need. You forget how they don’t have a sleep schedule. You forget that they depend on you for every need they have. Scary.
Then, as you lie on your back, baby curled up on your chest sleeping. You realize, that right there, 6 inches from your face, lie a perfect, miniature mirror image of you . Hearts beating together, the start of journey that lasts a lifetime.
Babies.