Every Day … Gets a Little Bit Easier
Recently, my husband and I started cleaning out a closet in our house that has become kind of a catch-all space. To put it plainly, it’s a mess.
But it’s also a treasure trove! Imagine my joy when I pulled out a folder and found teeny inked footprints from the hospital when my second son was born, notes on the exact sequence of events when my first son was born, and the bassinet name tag from when my third son was born. All precious and previously missing relics from their births!
In the same folder, I found another artifact: a handwritten schedule I had made of a typical day with my firstborn when he was about a month old. This included the hilarious but necessary reminder to myself to eat in between diaper changes, pumping, and cleaning bottles.
Behind this page was a sign that I had almost forgotten about. I used to have it hanging in my bathroom so it would be one of the first things I saw in the mornings; then I moved it to our fireplace mantle so I could see it throughout the day. It reads:
EVERY DAY…
- Baby gets a little bit bigger
- I get a little bit better and stronger
- Gets a little bit easier
The bottom of the sign included more reminders to myself to eat and drink water and to ask for help if I needed it.
I remember reading that sign all day, every day, and repeating it to myself like a mantra. Every day, my baby got a little bigger. Every day, I got a little better and a little stronger. Every day got a little bit easier. It didn’t always feel like it, but I had to believe that it was true. I had a difficult postpartum session, not recognizing the symptoms of postpartum anxiety, and complications in physical healing from my delivery. I had trouble walking any farther than a block for over a month; I was terrified to leave the house; I was drowning in pump parts and pump times and all things exclusive pumping-related. There were days when I felt like time was standing absolutely still, like nothing was changing, like neither I nor my baby was growing.
But we were. My sign told me so. And looking back on it now, seven years later, I can confirm it was all true – and remains true to this day. It may seem a little bit corny now, but back then, it was a lifeboat.
As a mother of three well past any and all newborn stages, and with the benefit of hindsight, I can say with confidence that even now, my kids get a little bit bigger every day. I get a little bit better and stronger as a parent every day. And everything gets a little bit easier every day.
(Except sometimes, parts get harder! That’s just the plain truth.)
But the rest is true too: I still have to eat and drink, of course, and I still need reminders to ask for help. If you’re in the newborn trenches, I can assure you, it gets better. I needed to read it out loud to myself every day. And no matter what happens, we get a new day to try again, and your kids are growing. You are growing. We are all growing together, and we are all getting better at this.
