It doesn't matter how many years it might have been, or whether you are happily shacked up with someone new, when you first hear your ex is about to become a parent you are bound to have some feelings about what might have been.

Even though I was married to someone else when my ex announced he was becoming a father, I still wondered why it had never happened with us. You can even be forgiven for fantasizing about what your kids might have looked like. (Just resist the urge to send any tipsy texts about this in the middle of the night.)

Of course, reality usually gives you the perspective you need to realize that there's a reason why you two didn't work out and why you two aren't going to soon be a family. You don't have to go through a bad break up or think your ex is horrible, to be thankful that the two of you went in different directions and have separate lives, now.

If my ex wasn't my ex, I wouldn't have met my husband and we wouldn't have our son. Everything happens for a reason, as clichéd as that statement is, and sometimes finding out that your ex is expecting is a great reminder of that.

For one jealous little moment you might actually hope the baby is hideous, but come on. Who are you kidding, right? All babies are adorable, although come on, who are you kidding, all babies are kinda adorable, and you won't have to wait for your ex to post pictures to realize that his or her baby is going to be really cute, too

Watching your former love prepare for their new role as a parent, might make you feel a little misty eyed.

Even if your relationship ended badly, there were reasons you were attracted to each other in the first place, and part of that may well have been their potential as family material. When you watch them prepare to be a father or a mother, and you see how excited they are and how caring they are, you can't help but remember that they aren't inherently bad. You guys just weren't meant to be.

If your only view of your former partner's new life is through the eye of social media, it may be a little skewed and romanticized. Still, I think most of us would have to admit that when we watch our exes prepare for parenthood, we realized they're going to do a great job.

That someone that you used to love still holds a special place in your heart. You've moved on and abandoned all those feelings you used to hold for them, but you still wish them well and want them to have a good life. To watch your ex-boyfriend or girlfriend look so damn happy is, well, a pretty great feeling.

For me, the new baby was a final closure, he had his family and I had mine and we could both look forward to the future.

I was the one to call off my relationship with my ex, so for a while I hadn't given him or his new partner a second thought. I am not one of those super evolved people that can be friends with an ex and their new partner, so to be honest I had not really thought too much about either of their feelings.

But once they were in the newborn fog, I could empathize with what they were going through and felt a connection to that someone with whom I share a history by association.

Even if you haven't seen each other in years and hold nothing but kind (or not-so-kind) memories for one another, once your ex has a child of their own you can't help but feel connected somehow. After all, now you're both members of the crazy, sleep-deprived group called "parents."

You know the feelings your ex-boyfriend or girlfriend and their partner will probably have over the next year or so, because you have been there before and can commiserate with the lows you know they will experience (and the highs they are so lucky to enjoy).

You might have long abandoned any hopes of getting back together with your ex, or may have wished them good riddance as soon as they walked out of the door, or, like me, you might have been the one to call it off and are happy with a new love. Either way, a baby really puts the final nail in the coffin of your relationship that’s already over.

Your former love is now connected to a new partner in a way they never were with you. It's the perfect time to wish them well and say a final goodbye, even if it's a silent one.