It won't be like this for long...

Derek & I are enjoying every second with our sweet girl, but we quickly realized that being parents of a newborn is hard work! The first two weeks went really smoothly b/c Derek was on paternity leave and we had the help of my mom who was staying with us. But reality set in really quickly for me last week when Derek started back to work and my mom headed back to GA on the same day! I had never wished for an extra set of hands more! On my first day alone with Shelby, she had a poopy explosion in the nursery, which created quite the mess. After I got Shelby cleaned up, I put her in her bouncy seat so I could clean up the nursery. No sooner did I start cleaning up the nursery, she spit up all over her bouncy seat! Oh, the joys of parenthood! :) But no matter how hard it is at times, the sweet times make up for it & we know we will look back on this season of our life with nostalgia..which reminds me of this Darrius Rucker song:

He didn't have to wake up
He'd been up all night
Layin’ there in bed listenin’
To his new born baby cry
He makes a pot of coffee
He splashes water on his face
His wife gives him a kiss and says
It gonna be OK

It won’t be like this for long
One day we'll look back laughin’
At the week we brought her home
This phase is gonna fly by
So baby just hold on
‘Cause it won't be like this for long

Four years later ‘bout 4:30
She's crawling in their bed
And when he drops her off at preschool
She's clinging to his leg
The teacher peels her off of him
He says what can I do
She says now don't you worry
This’ll only last a week or two

It won’t be like this for long
One day soon you'll drop her off
And she won’t even know you're gone
This phase is gonna fly by
If you can just hold on
It won’t be like this for long

Some day soon she'll be a teenager
And at times he'll think she hates him
Then he'll walk her down the aisle
And he'll raise her veil
But right now she's up and cryin’
And the truth is that he don't mind
As he kisses her good night
And she says her prayers

He lays down there beside her
‘Til her eyes are finally closed
And just watchin’ her it breaks his heart
Cause he already knows

It won’t be like this for long
One day soon that little girl is gonna be
All grown up and gone
Yeah, this phase is gonna fly by
So, he's tryin’ to hold on

‘Cause it won’t be like this for long
It won’t be like this for long
It won’t be like this for long

I used to only relate to the 3rd verse of this song as a teacher. I would always think of the baby-ish five-year-olds that would walk through the doors of my kindergarten classroom in September and how quickly they would grow and change before my eyes. When their parents dropped their kids off in tears, I would try to convince them that the tears wouldn't last for long--soon they would be loving school..but I know it was still so hard for the parents. Now I'm appreciating this song (and the sentiments of my students' parents) in a whole new way.

The other evening Derek and I were eating our dinner in shifts b/c Shelby just wanted to be held. Every time we put her down, she just fussed. But we know the time will come when we'll be wishing she would still let us hold her and snuggle...so for now, we will cherish this time of being parents of a sweet newborn who wants to be snuggled all the time b/c it won't be like this for long.