Welcome Home to Love

There are many parents who see their babies for the first time and feel like they already know them.

It might be because you’ve been planning, dreaming, and worrying about this new life for at least nine months, and maybe long before that. Collecting clothes and toys and creating a space in the house for another person. Going to the doctor to get a sneak preview and making sacrifices large and small, like giving up wine and sushi.

Or maybe there is something more to it—maybe it’s the genes that are familiar, or the DNA, or if you believe in reincarnation maybe you really did know each other before! If you have stories of feeling like you already knew your baby when he/she was born, please share them with us by making a comment below.

In any case, the baby arrives and it seems like a miracle. And grandparents can feel the same way, possibly with an even deeper understanding of the miracle. It’s the continuation of the family, the clan, the species. It’s a chance to take part in the renewal part of the cycle of life, a cycle that with passing years we have come to experience in its joys and sorrows.

Micah Barry Pitt was born to my son and daughter-in-law on May 29 (I did make it in time!) and I’m in love. He is the spitting (pun intended) image of my son when he was born, so on some level a feeling of familiarity is inevitable. I am very grateful that he is healthy, calm, and obviously brilliant, shown by his choice of families.

I helped out in the hospital so my daughter-in-law could get a little sleep. His heartbeat melted into mine as I held him in the rocking chair in the middle of the night, and in my mind I kept hearing the line from Ewan McCall’s timeless love song The First Time Ever “...like the trembling heart of a captive bird.” So vulnerable, so precious, so necessary.