All Encompassing
In life, we are afforded many different experiences and many different emotions that go along with them. We fall in love, and the butterflies start and it is an all encompassing need to be near that person, to hear their voice, to touch them. Then, in some cases, those butterflies flutter away and the relationship breaks up, and there is an all encompassing sadness. Oftentimes, this is a cycle of love, sadness, love, sadness...until, one hopes, the one all encompassing relationship starts and the cycle ends. When you have a child, there is this all encompassing feeling starting in pregnancy. Protectiveness over this little life takes over every thought, and you can't think of anything else but how to get that baby here safely. Almost every part of life becomes about the baby and then...then. The baby arrives and you see that face and you are bursting with love. The first several weeks and months are about nothing but baby care...diapers, wipes, cribs, baths, feedings, no sleep,...