What do you say....

I just got back from going to visit my work partner, John, his wife, and their new son that the hospital. Antonio, Tatum, and I all went to meet them. He was just beautiful and perfect!

My first thought after seeing him was, "I can't believe Tatum used to be that small!" He weighed 7 lbs and 1 ounce.

Going to visit today brought back all of those thoughts and feelings I had when I was in the hospital after having Tatum. I was EXTREMELY tired, excited, a little nervous, in pain, but I thought "I can do this." And, "This isn't as bad as everyone made it sound!" And then I went home...

I got home and the pain was a little more and the newness of being a mommy was gone. Don't get me wrong, it was still easier than I had expected, but I definitely needed help from those around me and it certainly wasn't EASY. Antonio was great help along with my mother who spoiled us with WONDERFUL food and keeping our house spotless and letting me get MAJOR sleep!(MOM, you wanna come back for another week?)

I am majorly rambling, but as I was in the hospital, I was trying to figure out what I could say to the new parents as encouragement while still being REAL! When I was pregnant and then a new mom, I felt like everyone around me made it either look SO EASY or SO HARD! I wanted that someone that I could ask ANYTHING to and get a straight(and sometimes graphic) answer if I needed it. Lucky for me I did have some wonderful friends around like Tobie, Kimberly, my sister, Antonio's sister, and my mom.

I know that John and Amanda are going to be wonderful parents. I worked with John every weekday for a year and I know he is an awesome person who is madly in love with his wife. And even though Amanda and I don't know each other very well, I feel like I know her because John is ALWAYS telling me what a wonderful wife she is and how pefect, thoughtful, and caring, she is.

I guess all the advice in the world about parenting and "what works for us" will do no good for anyone until they become parents themselves.

I don't really know my point and this is the most random blog ever, but I guess all I have to say to John and Amanda is...
GOOD LUCK! Every sleepless night is well worth it! Take LOTS of pics! When you think you are going to go crazy due to the crying, pain from birth, sleepless night, etc. CALL someone for help and just remember every day gets better and better. EVERYONE is going to give their opinion on what your baby is wearing, how you guys choose to parent, who he looks like, etc. just smile, nod, and ignore them!LOL

To John, after seeing you in the hospital today, I saw a different person. You had "PROUD DAD" written all over your face! If you want to talk about him all day, every day to me when I get back to work, I will listen!(And I won't make fun of you.lol)

And to Amanda, great job on having such a beautiful, perfect, healthy baby. I look forward to seeing lots of pics of him in the future!

Oh yeah, Tatum wanted to send a shout out to her new boyfriend...she says HELLO!