My Beef With Newborn Babies ... and most hard things

Three months ago I was blessed with a healthy baby boy. It’s my wife and I’s second time around.

I’m not yet sure if it’s easier or harder with no. 2.

I always hear people say that we have a coping mechanism built into our psyche that allows us to forget how difficult newborn parent life is. I would say that is true, and necessary.

It is a roller coaster of emotions. There is physical pain, mental fatigue, and moments of hormone induced euphoria.

When you have kids, you know it is worth it. However, in the moment, when they are 18 inches from your face screaming and you cannot get them to stop it’s hard to stay calm. It’s physically hard to battle the fatigue of sleepless nights, tip toeing from room to room hoping you’ll luck into an extra 30 minutes of sleep. It’s hard to support your partner as you are a wreck yourself. 

It is all so damn hard. 

And it’s not hard because of any one of those things — it’s hard because of all those things and so much more are going to continue on for an unknown period of time. The baby could cry for 2 minutes or two hours. It could sleep through the night at three months or three years. 

For example, if I knew that I’d be back to my eight hours of sleep in six months, I could take a deep breath and work towards that goal. But instead, each night I wake up and with blurry eyes check the time, hoping it will reveal a time that humans are supposed to be awake.

They compare the hardest things to running marathons or even climbing Mount Everest, but at least those hard things are clearly defined.

The very hardest things don’t have finish lines.

As soon as we’ve completed the most recent hardest thing, and we’re safely on the other side, it’s easy to look back and misremember the pain you were feeling as you went through it.

The reason for writing this, in addition to giving myself a pep talk, is to serve as a reminder that you’ll get through whatever hard thing you’re working on right now.

Keep pushing. And remember hard things are the best things.