23 weeks, 0 days - Dear Baby

Dear Baby,

Today, you are 23 weeks old. I guess we won't count that once you're born, but that's how far you are along the development timeline. My book said that I should write you a letter. I feel a little bit sheepish doing it on this public blog, but I'm eventually going to print the whole thing out as a keepsake for you, so I guess this is as good a place to do it as any.

I hope that you are happy, little Baby. I hope that Matt and I are good parents to you and that we always put your needs first, that we're never selfish or make decisions based on pride or stubbornness. I hope that you are healthy and smart and beautiful and kind and good and generous. I hope that life is good to you and hard enough to make you strong without being so difficult that you become discouraged. I hope that you are optimistic and a change maker. I hope that you make good choices. I hope that you make the world a better place.

I know that you will be profoundly loved. I know that you will have support in all that you do.

I am sorry that you'll never meet your Papa Pieper. He knew about you before he passed away and was so excited to be a Grandad. He was a very hard worker and was loved very dearly by many. I hope that I get to see some of him in you. I am sorry that the world holds so many challenges for young people these days. I am sorry that I will not be able to shelter you from all the pain and discomfort that will occur in life, but I will be there to support and love you through it all.

I am afraid that we will not be as good at being parents to you as our parents were to us. I am afraid that your childhood won't be as happy as our childhoods were. I am afraid that we'll make the wrong choices by giving you too many opportunities or too few and will limit your potential or not support it so that you can grow and thrive and become the beautiful person you are destined to be. I am afraid that I will do or say something that will cause you harm in a way that we won't know about until it is far too late to change it.

You are 23 weeks old today. You have around 17 left to grow and develop before we get to meet you. I can't wait to see your little face and hands and toes, to kiss your little tummy and pet your little head. I look forward to finding out if you'll be a Henry or a Delilah, to see if you have hair, to get to know your personality and to watch you grow and develop.

I love you, little Baby. Keep up the good work and we'll see you in a few months.

love Mama