Dear Grandma: Thank You for Showing Up Before She Even Arrived

By Angie  |  Co-Founder, Little Zi

April 2026  ·  5 min read

A letter to every grandmother who was already knitting, already planning, already in love before the baby was even born.

Dear Grandma,

I want to take a moment, today, to say something I do not think any of us say enough.

Thank you.

The Way You Love

I have met a lot of people who love a baby. I have never met anyone who loves a baby quite the way a grandmother does.

Grandmother love is its own category. It is unconditional. It is unlimited. It is blind and committed and completely undefended. It is pure joy with no asterisks.

The mother loves with exhaustion and worry and the heavy weight of being responsible. The grandmother gets to love with delight. With breath. With patience the rest of us forgot how to have.

You Loved Her Before She Existed

I want to tell you a story.

When my mother — Zizzi — found out I was pregnant with my first daughter, she said something to me I will never forget.

Here is the part that makes me cry every time I tell it.

She had already named her. Years before. She had been designing a collection — long before I was pregnant, long before I even knew I could be pregnant — and she had already named that collection Sophia, after a granddaughter she did not yet have.

I asked her how she knew. She just smiled and said she did.

That is what a grandmother’s love looks like. It does not wait. It does not wait for proof, or pregnancy tests, or arrival dates. It begins early, in some quiet corner of her heart, the moment she decides — this baby, even a baby who does not exist yet, is mine.

What You Do, That No One Sees

You knit before there is a child to wear it.

You plan a nursery before you know if there will be a nursery.

You save the little dresses, the old toys, the books from when your own children were small.

You think about names. About lullabies. About the smell of a new baby’s head and how long it has been since you held one.

You hold space, mama — long before there is a baby to hold.

Most of the world does not see this work. But your daughter sees it. Your daughter-in-law sees it. And the baby, when she arrives, will feel it. We all feel it.

What You Make Possible

Without you, the way we mother would be impossible.

You are the call we make when the baby will not stop crying. You are the hand that knows how to swaddle. You are the one who shows up at our door with food we did not ask for, on the worst week we have ever had. You are the person who says “go, take a nap, I have her” — and we believe you, because you are the only person we believe.

You are why our children know what it feels like to be loved uncoditionally. We try to give them that. You give it to them without trying.

For the Grandmothers-to-Be

If you are a grandmother in waiting — already planning, already loving, already preparing your hands and your heart for a baby who has not arrived yet — I want you to know something.

She will feel it.

The way she is greeted. The way she is held. The way she walks into a world that has been quietly preparing for her arrival for months, sometimes years. That kind of welcome shapes a child.

Thank You. Really.

This is what I want you to take from this letter.

You do not always get thanked. The work of grandmothering is mostly invisible — the calls, the meals, the quiet hours holding a baby so her exhausted mother can finally close her eyes. The world does not stop to celebrate it.

So let me try, today, in a small way.

Thank you. For the love that began before any of us were ready for it. For showing up before you were even asked. For everything you make possible, every single day.

If You Are Looking for a Way

If you are looking for a way to show a new mama and her baby that you have been loving them since before they arrived — that is, in some quiet way, what we built Little Zi for. A basket that says: I have been thinking about you. I have been waiting for you.

But really, this post is just a thank you to all of you.

To Every Grandma

Abuela, oma, nana, nonna, halmoni, popo, tutu, lola — to whatever name your grandchildren will one day call you —

You are the love that begins before the baby.

You are the love that does not end.

Thank you. From all of us. 💛

— Angie

Co-Founder, Little Zi

littlezi.com