I remember putting my son to bed one night when I suddenly noticed how big he had gotten.  I remember when he was just a baby and he used to comfortably fit – spread eagle – across a pillow on my lap.  All of the sudden, when I sat with him in his chair at night, his legs would dangle over the edge and his fingers seemed so much bigger wrapped around mine own.  But he would still manage to curl up in a tight little ball and snuggle in until he would doze off…just like he did on the first night we brought him home.

It hit me the most though when I put him to put bed on the night of Thursday, December 8th, 2011;  The night before we were having our daughter.

I was going to wake up the next morning – while much of the world was still just waking up –  and I would be getting prepped in an operating room to have our baby delivered by elective c-section.

I had known this was going to happen for some time, but that was the night I truly realized that his days as my only baby were coming to an end…

For nearly twenty-one months, it had been just the three of us and as of the next morning, we would no longer just watch him grow as our little boy…but also as a big brother.  An elder sibling.

It’s kind of a strange feeling to know when your baby is going to arrive!  To no longer have to anticipate labour or wonder when the big day will be.  It’s a strange feeling to plan for their arrival instead of reacting to it!  And it’s a strange thing to look at your first baby for the last time as your only baby.  To know that when you hold them again…all of you will have been changed.

This is Rebecca and Jarek right now.

They are soaking in the final days with their little boy as their only child.  Until that one night comes.  The night when they put him to bed and he wakes up as an older brother.  When they wake up as a family of four.

When they wake up…hold him again…and know that all of them have been changed!