{"id":2589,"date":"2014-09-09T20:04:25","date_gmt":"2014-09-09T20:04:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/?p=2589"},"modified":"2016-01-14T23:43:43","modified_gmt":"2016-01-15T06:43:43","slug":"on-the-arrival-of-a-first-child","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/2014\/09\/09\/on-the-arrival-of-a-first-child\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Arrival of a First Child"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"x<\/a>Six years ago I wrote this piece to honor the pending birth of a friend\u2019s child.  It\u2019s about the first days after the birth of a first child. Right now, each of my sons is expecting a child, so one more time, here\u2019s the memory \u2013 with gratitude and love.<\/p>\n

What an emotional shock it has been to write this.  I need to start with that; the feelings, years later, are still there. Since this baby shower is for one of my favorite bloggers, and <\/span>friends, I\u2019m grateful to be part of it.  Our task is to share those lovely early moments with our brand new children.  That\u2019s why I\u2019ve added this, which may be the most perfect photo I own, because it says just what we all know.<\/p>\n

The connection of a mother and newborn is so complete that it\u2019s almost
\nimpossible \u2013 even with writers as remarkable as this community \u2014 to describe.
\nAt least I can\u2019t find words that say what I know this photo says.<\/p>\n

This is actually my second son, very soon after he arrived.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s almost 33 now and more extraordinary than even I, proud mama, could have imagined
\nthat cold November day in Roosevelt hospital in 1979.  He and his brother
\nboth started off with beautiful souls though.  They are beautiful still.<\/p>\n

When I think of those early days, it isn\u2019t all the getting up at night (although it could be) and it isn\u2019t that I had so much trouble nursing that I needed to supplement (although it could be) and it isn\u2019t the absolutely perfect terror that I might do them harm that accompanied the first days of their lives (although it certainly, indubitably could be.)<\/p>\n

Nope.  Here\u2019s what I remember, and what I wish for the two of you and all you other moms and moms-in-waiting:  it\u2019s a cold winter night, maybe after about a week as the new parent of son number 1.  It\u2019s dark, but out the window you can see the boats going up and down the Hudson River (even though our windows leak so there\u2019s ice on our windows, on the inside.)<\/p>\n

You hear a cry and struggle out of bed, grab a robe, go retrieve this new little person from his crib, change him and move with him to the bentwood rocking chair (of course there\u2019s a rocking chair) facing the window. And you hold him in your arms and you feed him.<\/p>\n

The dark envelops you,  the dim skyline across the river in New Jersey is the only light you have, except for the tiny pinpoints of light on the tug boats and barges as they make their way.  And it\u2019s silent.  Not a sound.  And, with this new life in your arms, you rock gently back and forth.  The gift of peace of those nights in the rocker was so intense that as I write this, I can feel it. If I let myself, I could cry.<\/p>\n

I remember watching my mother with each infant \u2013 can still see her face as she responded to them,  thinking to myself then \u201cOh. This must be the way she was with me.  How beautiful.  How beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n

And I remember this.  My parents came to us very soon after our first son was born, helped put the crib together, celebrated with us. Late one night, as I stood with our baby in my arms, my dad walked into the room. Looking at the two of us, in perfect peace, he said to me  \u201cNOW do you understand?\u201d  Of course I did.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Six years ago I wrote this piece to honor the pending birth of a friend\u2019s child.  It\u2019s about the first days after the birth of a first child. Right now, each of my sons is expecting a child, so one more time, here\u2019s the memory \u2013 with gratitude and love. What an emotional shock it … Continue reading On the Arrival of a First Child<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[42,7,29],"tags":[2834,2835,2838,2837,204,897,2836,213,205],"class_list":["post-2589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","category-life","category-women","tag-being-a-mother","tag-first-child","tag-grandmother","tag-hudson-river","tag-mother","tag-new-baby","tag-new-york-city","tag-newborn","tag-parent"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4gBq8-FL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2589"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3896,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2589\/revisions\/3896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}