On Welcoming a New Baby

It’s been a while since I wrote about motherhood around these parts. And it’s not for lack of ideas or time spent thinking about it.  

The new-baby-days bring on all sorts of possible discussion points for mothers.  

And I’ve thought about turning several of these into blog posts, but I just haven’t.

Mostly because I felt strange about it.

The truth is, even though I’ve had four 4 babies now, I still feel like a rookie and every day feels like some sort of experiment.  

Some days I am white-knuckling it to the end.  

Others slip through my fingers.  

Therefore, who am I to write some post entitled, “10 tips for welcoming a baby “. Or some other nonsense like that?

So I haven’t written those posts and I don’t think I ever will.

The truth is that having and caring for babies, especially amid the chaos of older children, is just something we live and love our way through.  

There is no other way to do it.  

There are no tricks, no guarantees, and no easy fixes.  It is day after beautiful, loud, frustrating, fun, wonderful day.  

The only real wisdom there is to share between mothers is to try and enjoy it.

Ask for help when you need it, and love those kids as best you can.

But you already knew all of that.

All we can do is carry on, take a few pictures of the journey. And pray that God fills in the gaps where we fall short, which we always will.

I continue to be humbled by the awesomeness of new life and how close you get to it as a mother welcoming a new baby.  

God is so very good and mysterious.

It might sound strange… But each time I have a baby I feel that what I have experienced is so miraculous that surely this has never happened before.  

How could something like this, the sudden burst of new life, ever have happened before, let alone happen all day, every day, all around the world?

And yet it is!

I see pregnant ladies everywhere, friends and family are expecting.

The babies and the miracles just keep coming and we are all wrapped up in the amazing abundance of God’s love.

So,  instead of trying to write some sort of how-to mothering post (ha! as if!) I thought I’d stitch something simple and fun because that’s what I do.  

Something is easily given as a gift that will in some (very) small waymark another baby’s entrance into the world.  

Sure, the new-baby-days are hard and sleepless, but what miracle ever came quietly?  

What revolution ever allowed the status quo uninterrupted?

I stitched up these cute little baby feet for my younger sister who is expecting her fifth child this fall.  

She told us the name, Evangeline. And we are all over the moon excited that it’s a girl since her last three have been boys.

But, we’d be excited anyway.  

Even though it’s her fifth.  Even though babies aren’t anything new for us or for her, it’s still very very exciting.

When Josie arrived this spring, even though she was our fourth. Even though I had been through this three times before, it all felt new with her, new in every sense way.

It felt just as scary and thrilling and strange and so deeply sweet.  

A lot of these feelings I recalled feeling with my other babies, but even still I was swept away by them once more.

I also stitched up a geometric version of this baby feet pattern.  

I think I might like it even better and my husband had the terrific idea of using it as a tag on a baby gift.  

Cute, right?

You can find the FREE PDF OF BOTH PATTERNS HERE.  

It’s a simple pattern and if stitched on 14 count Aida cloth, as I did, it will fit nicely in a 4″ wooden embroidery hoop.  

I added the baby’s name with this free cross stitch font I shared a while back.  

Leaving plenty of room at the bottom of the pattern for you to sketch out the name of your sweet baby.  

I plan on adding the birth date below the name but, since my sister has yet to have her baby, I will have to do that later.  

Also, I stitched my little feet up in an ombre of pink shades.  

The pattern just calls for one color, but I thought I’d have fun with it, as I hope you do too.

I also thought these might make nice Christmas Ornaments.  

They are small and I have always liked how embroidery hoops look like ornaments.  

If you use the pattern for that purpose, please take a picture and share it with me.  I love seeing the things you all create!

And that’s all I have.  Carry on, sweet momma.  

These days can get hard and long, but just keep your sights on the amazing miracle you have a front-row seat to.

Thanks for being here,