Father of a 15 Month Old

Being a father to a 15 month old is really an incredible thing in life.  He has changed in so many ways since his birth and done so really fast.  He seems like such a bigger little boy than he actually is because he is quite tall for his age, in the 95^th percentile, and yet he is also quite skinny.  Just this morning I was getting him up and out of bed and noticed how big he is getting.  He was wearing a two piece pajama set that is pretty close to being skin tight and it made him look like he was about three years old.  It’s true what they say, kids grow up too fast. 

Looking back at these last 15 months I can easily remember the many sleepless nights, the nearly two weeks we spent in the hospital right after his birth due to him getting pneumonia, learning how to change a diaper and maybe more importantly the ways not to, watching my wife turn into an even more beautiful person than she was already by taking on the mother role with such a strong passion, and finding myself caring for this little person more than anything else. 

Parenting is certainly a test of one’s limits and mine have been pushed to the edge numerous times, mostly due to times when there seemed to literally be nothing I could do to make him stop crying.  That has been one of the worst feelings of my life because I am very much the type of person that likes to be in control of situations and I also feel I am good at helping others.  I can remember a specific night when he was particularly fussy, he must have been just a few months old, it was in the middle of the night and it felt like I had been up for hours with him when actually it was probably more like just one hour.  I had tried all of the tricks of the trade that we were taught by our pediatrician and other family members and friends who have raised children and nothing was working.  Luckily for me, and for my son Landon, my wife came to save the day, or rather night.  She swooped in and relieved me for the time being and I was able to get a hold of myself and relax a bit. 

Oh, one important tid bit of information if have not mentioned is that my wife is a stay at home mom and I work full time.  Due to this, I generally put him to bed and she tends to wake up during the night most of the time with him so I can sleep and be rested for work.  He was napping a couple times a day back then and she would take that opportunity to catch up on her sleep too, if that’s even possible.

What I have realized through experiences such as these is that my wife and I are extremely important to my son and providing him care.  And even though I sometimes like to think of myself as being very important and special for whatever reason or occasion, there are times when my son simply needs hi s mother to comfort him, and that is just fine.  There have been plenty of times in the past and there will be many more instances in which I can provide no solution for him when he is in a little crisis of his own and yet just being there to provide him a sense of security is most important.  And to provide my wife support and at times relief from our shared parenting duties is another thing that I truly appreciate.  I have learned to truly respect those single parents out there who have little to no support in raising their child because it is most certainly one of the most difficult things to do in life. 

I started this post with the intention of sharing most of my struggles and appreciations as a father and as you have now read, unless you are a skim reader like me most of the time, it really turned into more of a reflection of amazement at how my wife and I transformed into, what I believe to be, fantastic parents.  Without the support of each other and our unconditional love for our child, this whole experience could have been much different and not in a positive way.  But as with many things in life, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts and this family certainly feels like one smooth operating machine, at least most of the time. 

All images in this post were taken from my wife's blog http://www.laceyhorst-thomas.blogspot.com/ She fortunately has an iPhone to capture most of the pics of Landon that we take.