In the first few months of your Quit, try to think of your Quit as a newborn baby.
During the first few days, you are like a brand new parent with your newborn Quit. You are a little frightened, unsure, worried. You think you may not be cut out for this. You panic easily. Your Quit is tiny and helpless.
Your Quit can't make it all on its own yet. Your Quit needs lots of attention. You must watch carefully over your Quit. Your Quit needs you to take good care of it. Just like a real baby.
So spend a lot of time nurturing your Quit. Do the things you need to do to make sure your Quit stays healthy. Spend a lot of time helping your Quit to grow stronger. Just as you would do for a real baby. Feed it healthy foods. Take it for a walk. Cuddle and coddle it when you first bring it home with you.
You may need to cut back on your usual activities in order to take good care of your little Quit.
Stay away from the places that might harm a newborn Quit. Don't take your sweet little Quit into bars. Don't take your precious Quit into the homes of smokers. You wouldn't take a real baby to these places, would you? Of course not.
Hang around with other new parents of itty-bitty Quits for support. Ask for the advice of older parents whose Quits are now toddlers, pre-teens, teenagers. Listen to their advice; they've already raised good, strong Quits.
Just as in the case of a real newborn baby, your Quit will grow every day. It will become stronger and smarter. It will learn to stand on its own without you having to cradle it in your arms all the time. But not right away. Right now, give your baby Quit what it needs to thrive.
Maybe someday, as your Quit grows up, instead of constant attention, it will only need a pat on the head or a kiss on the cheek to stay strong and tall.
It will always need loving attention from you, just like any growing child. But as it grows up, it won't need your constant hovering devotion. Just remember to make sure your Quit always knows how much you love it and how you will always be there for it, no matter how old it gets.
But until then...do all that a parent can, and should, do to protect your precious newborn Quit.
xxxooo, Sky
