Size Matters

There's something you really, really should know if you are having a baby:

This goes really fast.
It's really hard.
But it goes really fast.
Pay attention. Take lots of pictures and video. It will speed by you, and it will be difficult to remember. Even when you are thinking you can't do it anymore, you are too tired, it's too much, it's going on too long, remember: it will be over too soon, and you will miss it. They are only babies for such a very short time. I have lost the sense memory of what he was like when he was in the hospital, of how small he was still when he came home. I only have flashes now and then when I note how big he is getting, and it feels different for just a moment.
Pay attention.

And this is coming from someone whose baby has woken up screaming the past two nights, is quite tired, and needs to get back to her breast pump. When it gets too much, I remember that this is a fraction of his life, and he needs me now like he never will again.

August 18, 2008. Finn had been home one week.

March 8, 2009. The baby that ate Finn.

Handprint and hand.