What a blessing to be a father again!
Titus was born to us on June 26th, my wife’s 5th C-section. She is deserving of so much honor to bravely go under the knife once again, especially when it’s been 10 1/2 years since our last child!
Yes, there was fear and concern on both our parts. But for almost miraculous reasons I wont’ cover at this time, we know God was in this from the start, so we trust in faith and follow His lead.
My wife is amazing, and I don’t ever want to take her or what she does for granted. This discipline actually builds the love between us, but that is for another post.
There’s nothing quite like going from a full night’s sleep to the abrupt crying every 2-3 hours, waking up, replacing a pacifier, rocking and patting him for 30 minutes trying to get him to calm down, falling asleep in some contorted position, the crick in the neck,… and that’s the easy part.
My wife does the hard work of all the above, as well as nursing and enduring the pain that comes with that, on top of being awakened 3 or more times during the night. And of course, everything I don’t see while I’m at work.
And like anything that is a lifelong commitment, the “birth” is not the hardest part. The hardest part is everything we will have to do for the next 18 or so years to prepare this baby to become a young man, then a man, then a husband, and then a Daddy. (Prepare, not predestine)
It is my job as a father to set the course so he knows the destination.
And I will help him along the journey so when he is off course, I will be there to help him see the way back to the correct course.
But for now, he is a baby. And those of us that have at least one child know raising him is going to take a great deal of self-sacrifice, and will challenge us to review our own areas of selfishness to rise to a higher level of understanding. We will grow, or we will cave in – but it’s best to know those challenges are coming and choose now.
The good thing is, we’ve been down this road several times already, so we know much of what to expect.
I pray that those of you that are new parents will seek the wisdom and council of others that have successfully raised one or more children past the teenage years. They should be of great help to you, because there is much you don’t want to learn on your own.
And for those of us that have raised one or more children, whether we feel we were successful or not, we must share our experiences to help new parents.
Don’t force advice on new parents, but offer to share experiences if they desire to hear. (That goes for you grandparents as well!)
Tell a story about something that happened in the younger years and how you did the wrong thing, then corrected it, or did the right thing even though it was against what you wanted to do.
We all need help, and we are all teachers.
I often learn more from the mistakes of others than I do from hearing of their successes, so both are very helpful.
What parenting advice do you have for the first year!
Q: What was the best advice you were given, and did you use it?
Q: What do you wish you had done differently?
Looking forward to receiving some advice and comments from great minds!