Hold your baby

Everyone always reminds you to hold your babies when they are first born. “They grow up so fast” they say, “this stage never lasts long”.  

So you do. You soak up the first month postpartum at home. Every breath, every snuggle, every nursing session. It is utterly exhausting but you keep trying to soak up every moment.

 Time really does fly and now your newborn is 3 months old.

You start coming back into the world, going to see family, friends, the grocery store. But there seems to be a shift in the words people say. “You never share the baby, when is it my turn to hold the baby?” It seems a bit confusing because you thought you were just soaking it all in. You stick to your mom gut and continue holding your baby snuggling her closely.

Now your baby, now my baby is walking. A little over 1 year old and I still accidently call her a newborn. People have started tossing around the word “toddler” which feels so odd because it feels like she just got here.  

But I am still holding my baby.

At the grocery store people remark “isn’t she a little big to be carried?” “When are you going to let her sit in the cart?” But my baby isn’t even one, I am just trying to hold my baby while she is still little, because as people told me just a few months ago, she grows up so fast.

So here I am, still holding my baby. Picking her up when she cries. Checking on her every night, even after she has closed her eyes.

From one mama to another, I hope you keep holding your babies.