When do you stop worrying?

Katy left a comment asking the question, "when do you stop worrying?" in regards to an unborn child. Katy is newly pregnant--YAY! Congratulations!

Katy, I hate to tell you this, but--your worries have only begun.

While different parents have different degress of worry to which they are inclined, and different children and situations cause varying amounts of worry, I think that becoming a parent makes you vulnerable like nothing else ever has or will. Your heart will soon be living outside your body, in many ways, and you'll probably never feel completely without some degree of concern for your child ever again.

In pregnancy, I have had all sorts of worries. I worried about things like, "What if the baby is born without a body part?" (I didn't have ultrasounds for 3 or 4 of my pregnancies) and "What if I am really having conjoined twins and we don't realize it and when it comes time to give birth I can't do it?!" (far-fetched concerns are fun ones but if you watch too many unsolved mystery type shows you might start to feel like oddities are statistically more likely than they really are)

I worried my way through my entire third pregnancy and everything was perfect, right down to the world's most perfect baby ever. :)

For my fourth pregnancy I had very high expectations, and ended up with a high-risk nightmare pregnancy. Thankfully, we still got an adorable, wonderful son out of the deal, though he was born 3 months early.

During my 6th pregnancy I felt a deep concern that I didn't fully understand but prompted me to do alot of praying. I literally prayed and prayed for my child's life and for God to protect us. There were no warning signs of anything going wrong. The entire pregnancy was smooth sailing. And then one day I woke up gushing blood. I had a placental abruption. Thankfully we ended up with our adorable Squiggy Magoo and he got a live and kicking (well, not so much kicking after an emergency c-section, but alive nonetheless) mom out of the deal. I still feel that my prayers "availed much" in that situation.

The good news is that most of the time pregnancy goes just perfect. Worry is a normal part of being a parent. But it isn't fun. Somewhere along the line you get used to it. Sort of.

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Want to see some amazing photos of some unborn babies? You can go visit Womb's Window, which is my mother's business. And after you get done looking at the babies, you can go check out my latest project, the Womb's Window Shopping Mall. Be sure to sign up for the newsletter--it is going to be really good, and we have a lot of exciting things coming up, including The Baby Boutique at Womb's Window, opening next month! Katy--we'll have the goods to get you and that new baby of yours looking totally adorable!