One of the wild things about having had children over the last decade and a half  (holy cats, that makes me feel old) is how much things have changed between our first baby and our last. And I’m not even talking about us – no that’s a whole other post. I was reading the BabywearingInternational.org and started getting nostalgic about the “before” times – and all the fun and stress that came with it.

No, the world is a different place.

When we had Max, Jac timed contractions with a stop watch we had purchased for the occasion.  I’m pretty sure he had it on a chain that tucked into his waistcoat pocket.  Okay, not really, but in comparison with the handy-dandy app we used that tracked not just duration and space between, but the average length and distance apart they were and the strength of each one with helpful emoji faces to aid in the selection.

Fifteen years ago, when we went into labor, I called Lacey from our faux rotary phone that was plugged into the wall and had a 2 foot cord.  When I couldn’t reach her at the house or on her seldom-used cell phone (it was for emergencies!), we called Nate who was working at BHSU Buzz (89.1 FM!) and he asked on air for Lace to give him a call.  This time around I texted friends and family to pray for us as we prepped for birth.

In preparation for Max, the hospital had sent a friendly reminder to make sure we had batteries in our camera.  Jac laughed condescendingly over who would fail to have batteries in their camera.  Then the day came and pride goes before the fall, as they say, and we were without batteries in our little digital camera.  This required a trip to Target to get the funky sized lithium batteries.  This time around, our big cameras were charged and ready but the only ones we used were the cameras on our phones.

The same phones that had the music that I requested that embarrassed Jac- no need for MP3 players or the bulky CD player we hauled to the hospital the first go round.

When Max was born, we called the folks who needed to know with the news and knew they in turn would pass it along. We planned and made birth announcements for our loved ones and those who may not have heard.  Facebook and a video took care of the exciting announcement this time.  Fr. Mike, seeing Jac somewhere last week was out of joint. “I heard you had a boy.” he said. “Why don’t you tell anyone?” he sulked.  “You should’ve checked Facebook!” Jac said.

Yes, the world has changed.  WE have changed.  But the magic and mess of a baby is still the same and for that I am thankful indeed.