And in the wee hours of a hot Tuesday a.m. on September 2nd, we met our little man in person. Now that’s a moment. Finally looking at the tiny person who we had spent months creating a personality for. Months imaging charming little features. Months – for me – wondering (worrying?) what labor might be like (great feeling when it’s done!) and I suppose even what nursing would be like. Months impatiently awaiting the moment to cuddle our new little human.

With my hormones on launch to Cloud 9, I wanted to jump out of bed with Radley in my arms and go show everyone – “Ta-da! Look what we did!” Amazing that you are simply one in a stream of new moms coming in to give birth and that immediately after you are discharged another family is being scooted right in, but it doesn’t compute – that baby makes you feel completely unique.

A wealth of knowledge has descended upon Zach and I over the last six months and we have thought a lot about things we didn’t think we would think about. (More rightly, I have overthought a lot of things over the last six months and my husband has been wondering why we’re doing so much thinking. Thank you for the balance, Z.) But, as all new parents know, we are faced with daily (and hourly) decisions – tiny and big: which detergent to use to rock out the funk from your reusable diapers? Are you going to co-sleep or sleep train? Did mom and baby get thrush – oh, maybe you haven’t heard of thrush? If not, stayed tuned.

With all of these things to think about, I started to realize it’s nice to have someone to chat with about it all. Each time I do, it restores me. Oh, thank goodness. You did that too? So, I am not completely bungling this up. That’s why I have loved sitting in on a Mom and Baby class whenever I have had the chance. (Make sure you find one if you haven’t already joined one.) You reconnect with yourself when you connect with others. You can bounce thoughts off on someone and you can share what worked for you. (And when you see a new mom’s eyes light up with enlightenment or relief, that’s a definite confidence boost – “Good, good. My relentless deliberating and restless introspection are paying off. Seems I just handed over a helpful idea,.”) And, well, doesn’t it just fill you with a good amount of comfort having spent time with your allies? Because, as natural and intuitive as parenting should be/is, let’s also be real – there is a healthy dose of responsibility that can go wearingly wrong, especially when it’s your first time caring entirely for another human being.

We live quite a ways away from my parents and my friends and so we don’t always get the chance to connect and chat with each other in a way that we would like to. In wishing that I could spend a morning with my girlfriends at a play date or run errands with my parents and make dinner with my mom – and while Face Time works wonders – I also thought these pieces of writing would be our way of building a community of baby sharing. Like one big mom and baby class. Like one continuous Face Time.

Zach, Radley and I hope you enjoy reading and we hope you join in. This is new territory and it will be fun and meaningful to talk about how we are all constructing a homemade runway for our little tot landing.