A little advice

A co-worker of mine just had his first child - which reminded me of the time when my own first child was born.

For those of you who haven't been there, even though we do almost none of the work, being a expecting father can be pretty stressful. besides all of the worrying about whether you are going to be a good dad (or at least better than your own dad), you worry about whether your wife is going to get through the pregnancy alright, that the baby is going to be healthy, that the doctor doesn't screw anything up like dropping the kid on the floor or cutting the wrong thing during the circumcision.

Once the pregnancy was over (which happened around six in the morning) and all the tests were done and Mom and baby were all cleaned up and all the family and friends had come and gone and everyone had finally settled down for the night (this was around 9 pm), I finally felt like I could relax.

A gigantic weight of nine months of worry lifted off of my shoulders and for about five minutes, I experienced the greatest peace in my life. Pure, unadulterated relief.

And then I looked over at my new daughter and I realized I was going to have to worry about this little person for the rest of my life. And then the weight came slamming back down twice as hard as before. But that's OK, that's what being a father's all about too.

So my advice to my co-worker and everyone else out there is to savor those fleeting moments of peace and happiness. They don't come that often, but when they do, they sure are great.