Time is so strange.

It speeds up and slows down; it compresses and expands.

When you were a kid, all you wanted was to be is one year older.

4 wants to be 5.              15 wants to be sweet 16.            20 want to be 21 and LEGAL! 😉

Having a baby changes time in a remarkable way.  If you want to get pregnant and can’t, then the cycles and weeks drag by with disappointment.  If you get pregnant when you weren’t expecting it, it all comes too soon – you thought you had more time!!

But once you are pregnant, times slows way down.

We count pregnancy in weeks:

• 7 weeks when I find out for sure,
• 10 weeks when I tell people,
• 13 weeks when I finally start to feel better!
• 20 weeks- half way there!
• 30 weeks- within the safe window “if I were to deliver today.”

And then the final 3 weeks drag by so s-l-o-w-l-y! They feel like an eternity!

Labor, however, is counted in minutes. “How far apart are the contractions now?!”

Pushing seems to last forever but finally, baby is here!

As you get acquainted with this new life, time changes again; and is counted in days:

• 3 days old and home from the hospital.
• 7 days old and in for a weight check.
• 14 days old and first immunizations.

After that, time is counted in weeks again: 3 weeks, 10 weeks, 12 weeks old.  “When will they sleep through the night?!”

Now by months- 4 months, 6 months, 8 months old!  A year old for one glorious day!

But then back again to months- 15 months, 21 months, and finally 2 years old!

After 2, you count by halves:  2 ½ years old, 3 ½ years old, 4 wants to be 5, 15 wants to be sweet 16, and 20 wants to be 21!  Weren’t we just here?!?

Someday you will look back, and realize the days were long, but the years went fast.  How did your baby get so big, go to school, graduate college, and move out into their own life?

Once upon a time, (or perhaps right now) you are counting your life in days, or months, or minutes or years.  Time moves at its own pace.   So what can we make of it, what can we do with it?

We can pause it.   We can really look into their beautiful faces for one long moment.  A precious moment. And learn something from the butterfly.

“The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough” Rabindranath Tagore

May you treasure many moments with your child in the hours and days and years ahead!