Very well written @tarazkp. Brings back some old memories ...
"... it seems like just yesterday, I can smell the hospital and picture the other newborns laying in their plastic cribs, crying. I can remember holding my daughter with her screaming through the night and I can feel the weight of her on my chest ..."
... as one of our children was born with a hole in the wall of his heart. The doctors were never able to give us any explanation for what we endured ...
With all of our children out of the home and on their way in life, we often look back and talk about it. In this instance, our son survived, thrived, and now the father of two of his own. His oldest a star basketball player in her high school ...
The daughter of the dear couple who we went through so much with? Whose little one also had a hole in her little heart? She passed away ...
The currents of life. And death ... The wonder and the joy. And the "not so much" ...
In the final analysis, we believe our children have deepened our lives. And given us our experience to be of help to others, who may be called upon to go through what we did.
May you and your beloved live to see your little girl thrive @tarazkp and ultimately prosper. Perhaps bringing a little one of her own someday to visit "Grandad!" 😊
This reminds me of my wife while in pain and worry having a conversation with another mother in the parent's room at the hospital. She had asked about our daughter and after my wife explained and then asked in return, she said that they had been there 3 months already and their child wasn't going to make it. She had barely even held him. :(
Life can be better. Life can be worse.
While I don't recommend parenthood for everyone, I think every parent is at the very least, changed by the experience.
I hope not too soon. :D
Nope "Dad" ...
... not too soon, although you'll learn soon enough @tarazkp, about how well your child listens to your advice versus that of others. And how then what, in her free will decision-making, she chooses to do (in response to the "siren song" of the big, wide world out there telling her far too often her Dad is an 'idiot," do this instead ) ...
Happy parenting! 😉
P.S. When she has a 0 in front of all of your time increments ...