Reality Check - Five More Weeks

It took a plastic life-size baby to shock John into the reality that pretty soon we're going to have an actual little person living with us. And we'll be responsible for that person.

Last night at baby care class, I let John practice on the plastic baby: diapering, bathing, swaddling. The entire time I reminded him that our real-life daughter would be crying, screaming, wiggling and/or flailing her appendages around while he tried to accomplish those tasks. Not sure if that helped his confidence at all, but I proceeded to remind him that he's a very smart person capable of learning new things. His experience with babies is almost zero.

(And now, even before our daughter is born, he is already expressing how hard my job as a full-time mom will be. I know I'm blessed to have a husband who understands how much work just being a mom really is!)

Even though I've done plenty of babysitting, been around friends with kiddos, and spent quite a lot of time helping my sister with my nephew, I'm apprehensive as well. I'm not clueless about what babies are like, but I've never had to care for one 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I'm the kind of person that is always trying to prepare for the worst. So while I'm aware of the complete life-change, exhaustion, frustration, possible depression, and feelings of being overwhelmed that our daughter will bring, I'm trying really hard to balance that with the positives. I'm trying hard to be in the mindset that our daughter as a newborn, as an infant, even as a toddler, will be a time period that flies by. I'm just not sure exactly how hard it will be to remain grateful for the little moments and notice precious details once we're in the thick of caring for an infant.

It's difficult to express how grateful we are for this little miracle. Mostly, I think adding a child to our family after so many years of being "just us two" will require a major adjustment period. When I think of the big picture (adding a child, maybe eventually more children, to our family), I'm so grateful and excited. Despite the major adjustment and lack of experience, we can't help but think how fun it's going to be to have more people to share life with as a family.

That baby care class last night also kind of lit a fire under us. I'm at the 35-week mark now. Although I sense that this little girl will go almost full-term, I guess I don't know for sure. Some things, like organizing all the baby shower gifts, washing clothes, purchasing necessities like diapers, setting up the bassinet and installing the car seat, really need to get done! Please let us still have five more weeks to get ready!