When Lyla was first born, more than 4 years ago, we had no idea what we were doing. I had a pretty traumatic birth experience and was bed ridden for about 2 weeks, which left Chris with a lot of the responsibilities aside from nursing. Before she was born he had never even changed a diaper, so there was quite the learn curve when she arrived.
When I was teaching Chris to change her diapers, I told him several times to never change her diaper from the end, but to stand at her side when she’s on the changing table. He just couldn’t figure out how to do it that way, so he continued to change her from the end. Well, as luck would have it, Lyla was quite a forceful pooper and really good at timing her poop for right when Chris had her diaper open. The first time it happened all of a sudden I hear a shriek and a scream from the bedroom and then lots of laughing from my mom who went to see what happened. Lyla had sprayed Chris like a skunk from his chest to his knees. The next time (because he didn’t learn his lesson the first time) was in the middle of the night, I hear yelling and then a loud THUD, in my half awake state I thought he had dropped her on the ground. I jumped out of bed to find him covered in poop again and he had thrown the wipes on the floor (hence the THUD). Not so much laughing that time at 3am. But, needless to say, he learned his lesson.
Even though the first couple of years of being parents were some of the hardest and most tiring times in our lives, they also hold some of the fondest memories I have of Chris. He woke up with me in the middle of the night every time she needed to eat and brought her to me from the crib. He rocked her for hours the first year when that was the only way she would go back to sleep in the middle of the night. We learned together what it meant to be selfless and serve each other when everything in us wanted to do the opposite. Parenthood will always have its challenges with every stage the girls are in, but based on the past 4 years, I know we have each other to count on through it all.
Congratulations Benny and Bri, Gianna is just the start of the beautiful, exhausting, adventure of parenthood.
