When you’re a new mom, every moment is a special gift. God chose you to love a new, precious, miraculous human He created. How can you savor and be present in each moment? Look out for these seven moments, and embrace them as they come.
7 Things Every New Mom Needs to Know
1. The moment you miss your baby in a seriously irrational way.
My baby would be nursing and I’d be crying that I missed having her in my womb. I left the house for two hours and burst into tears because she wasn’t with me. It was hard to let go, to let her be in this world outside of me, but meditating on God’s faithfulness and trusting He loved her even more than I did helped me deal (Psalm 100:5).
2. The moment you hear phantom crying for the first time.
I would hear my baby crying when she wasn’t. I had horrible imaginations of her being injured, abused, or dead. My husband and I would check her 9,000 times each night to make sure she was still breathing. New mom anxiety is for real, but God’s peace is stronger. Give all your worries and cares to God because He cares about you (1 Peter 5:7).
3. The moment you realize your baby’s daddy can be dangerous.
I saw a new side of my husband after our daughter was born. His intense protective instinct knew no boundary in avenging any harm that could befall our child. No harm did befall her, but remember #2 above? Even if he imagined someone hurting her, he was coiled and ready to strike. Oddly enough, his intense protectiveness gave me insight into the way God loves and protects us (Psalm 91:14-16).
4. The moment you can’t do it all.
My body was traumatized. My infant required 24/7 care. I could barely fit in snacks, much less showers or fresh deodorant! When you’re loving your child with all your energy, remember that Jesus told us in the Bible to “love one another” (John 13:34). That means you weren’t made simply to pour out God’s love to others, but to receive it from others, too. Let your pride go, and ask for help. Think about the people God placed in your life. What can they do to love you? Pick up dinner? Hold your baby while you shower? Listen to you sort through overly intense postpartum feelings and pray for you? God is there by your side in every situation, and He’s given you human beings to be by your side, too.
5. The moment nighttime = a really, really long time.
Once the sun dipped below the horizon, every feeding, every diaper change, every time I tried to rock her to sleep felt like it lasted forever. My mindset would become increasingly hopeless, fixated on the idea that this would be my life, forever. I desperately cried out to God to help me change my perspective. When you turn to God, night after night, you’ll see those long, newborn nights for what they are: a season—a precious, brief season (Ecclesiastes 3:1).
6. The moment you realize your new mom self is beautiful.
Don’t just take 5 million pictures of your newborn “smiling.” (Is it really just gas?) Take pictures of yourself, because you are just as fearfully and wonderfully made as your newborn (Psalm 139:14). I had a mental image of myself being swollen, fat, and ridiculous in pictures, but it simply was not true! Now I look back at the pictures and see my new mom beauty connecting with my baby’s newborn beauty and wish I had more!
7. The moment you reach out and pray.
It sounds trite, like the “good Christian” answer, but prayer will keep you connected to God’s unchanging nature when your whole world has just been turned upside down. There were many times my emotions were wildly hormonal and out of control. I prayed. I couldn’t calm my baby, get my baby to nurse, or get her to sleep when I desperately just needed a minute to myself. I prayed. My baby didn’t fall asleep or calm down every time I prayed, but my spirit was affected and returned to center. You can always turn to the One who says, “Peace, be still,” in the middle of every storm (Mark 4:39).
