new beginnings…

I am so excited that I get to share with the world: I am officially an aunt!  My ridiculously beautiful and perfectly healthy nephew has arrived.

I spent Sunday morning at the hospital with 1-day-old Baby V and his parents.  I am posting just one photo today, with the promise of many more to come.  I’m sorry friends, I know you want to see more and can’t wait to share them with you, but, for now I think the proud new parents should be the ones sharing the photos.

It was a bittersweet feeling, arriving on the same floor of the hospital where my son was born nearly three years ago… I can’t believe how much I have already forgotten about those early hours of his life or how incredible it is to witness this whole experience again from a different perspective.  The rooms are the same, the newborn blankets and tiny blue Northwestern hats are the same, even the string of nurses are the same, but this time I got to sit on the side and watch while they welcomed this incredible new life into theirs.  I think the emotions and actions of any new, first-time parents are probably pretty universal.  The overwhelming love and sense of protection is almost instant, while the apprehension and fear of making a mistake is almost unbearable.  I watched as they made sure he was swaddled just right while they cradled him ever so gently, as they checked with the nurse on how to burp him with the right amount of force, and grew anxious over whether he was eating enough… and I saw how the sound of his cry was just heartbreaking to them.

 I want to tell them that they will very quickly find their way.  And that it is okay if they don’t do everything exactly as the books say.  That this child is so lucky to have such already-incredible parents (not to mention grandparents that want nothing more than to be there with him, and a whole bunch of extended aunties and uncles just aching to help out.)  I want to tell them that the overwhelming love that they feel now will only continue to grow to the point where it is almost frightening… but yet always wonderful.  I want to tell them that yes, it’s inevitable, they will make mistakes, we all do as parents, but that these mistakes just about always come from that place of overwhelming love.  I want to tell them that they will worry, over just about everything in a way they never knew they could worry (and coming from the mother of a not-even-three year old, I’m sure I have a lot of worrying left ahead of me… I mean, I can’t even wrap my brain around the fact that one day my son will drive a car.  Alone.  Without my protection.  With other cars on the road.  It’s too much for me to think about.)  But all these worries stem from our need to protect our children and to spare them of even one ounce of pain.  It all comes with the territory.  I also want to tell them that I know they will do an amazing job of protecting this little boy, of teaching him everything they can (from how to write his name to how to walk like an elephant, as they have already taught his cousin), and of providing for him in every way they can.  What I know I do not need to tell them is to enjoy this time, these early, amazing days of his life, and all those days to follow.  It’s a beautiful adventure you guys are embarking on and I couldn’t be happier for you.
xoxo