It's not rocket science

I spent most of my pregnancy preparing (as type A's like myself are wont to do). It is safe to say that I consider myself a preparer (a real word? who knows, but I like it), and if I know something is coming up, I like to get ready. So, if I were going to launch a rocket, I would take some classes, buy some books, talk to some experts and consider myself ready to launch that rocket. This is exactly what I did when I was waiting for the boy. I bought books (lots of books, of which few turned out to be useful), I took the hospital classes, I talked to some of my friends who seemed to have this down. I thought I ws prepared, and honestly since you see lots of realtively incapable people who have children, you think to yourself "How hard can this be?".

 Hard. Really, really hard.

Let's say you've studied up, you feel prepared for this little rocket. You've sepnt time reading up on the mechanics, you've picked out the paint schemes, and choosing a name for your little bundle of propulsive joy. You feel like a champ as you walk into NASA. But then, you find yourself in the control room and you realize that nobody could have prepared you for the vast instrument panel, beeping and flashing in a ridiculously foreign language. Anything it says could signal impending doom or ridiculous happiness. You don't speak rocket, and it is T minus 10 to launch.

 That is the moment when they let you out of the hospital.

 And yes, you don't speak baby, because all the prep you have done so far has cruelly left out the phonetics of baby. Now that I have this to look back on, and now that I have a few friends on their way into this adventure, I would like to say something: Be kind. Be kind to yourself. You are entering the steepest learning curve you will ever experience. And by curve, I mean more like a roller coaster of extrememly high highs and low lows. You may very well complicate this for yourself (as I did) by wasting time saying things like "WHY don't I get this? I read the schematic, I studied the plans for this roller coaster."

 As soon as you stop paying attention to the track and look around, you will realize you are surrounded by the most beautiful view.