Here is a beautiful text that Boca Raton Community Hospital included in my discharge papers folder and it is really worth sharing!

Dear Mommy and Daddy:

I come to you a small, immature being with my own style and personality. I am yours for only a short time; enjoy me.

1. Please take time to find out who I am, how I differ from you, and how much I can bring to you.

2. Please feed me when I am hungry. I never knew hunger in your uterus, and clocks and time mean little to me.

3. Please hold, cuddle, kiss, touch, stroke, and croon to me. I was always held closely in your uterus and was never alone before.

4. Please don’t be disappointed when I am not the perfect baby that you expected, nor disappointed with yourselves that you are not the perfect parents.

5. Please don’t expect too much from me as your newborn baby, or too much from yourselves as parents. Give us both six weeks for me to grow, develop, mature, and become more stable and predictable; and six weeks for you to rest and relax and allow your body to get back to normal.

6. Please forgive me if I cry a lot. Bear with me and in a short time, as I mature, I will spend less and less time crying and more time socializing.

7. Please watch me carefully and I can tell you those things which soothe, console, and please me. I am not a tyrant who was sent to make your life miserable, but the only way I can tell you that I am not happy is with my cry.

8. Please remember that I am resilient and can withstand the many natural mistakes you will make with me. As long as you make them with love, you cannot ruin me.

9. Please take care of yourselves and eat a balance diet, rest and exercise so that when we are together you have the health and strength to take care of me.

10. Please take care of your relationship with each other, for what good is family bonding if there is no family to bond to?

Thank you,

Your Loving Child