remembering what i do have

There is this girl that I work with that just had a baby like two weeks ago. She brought the baby in today. She looked EXHAUSTED and when he cried that tiny little newborn cry, she went into the Conference Room to feed him.

Honestly, do their cries really change THAT much in six short long months? Don't I have a newborn at home? Where did he go? Because my newborn's cries sound NOTHING like that.

For a split second I actually thought "I HAVE to have one more baby, isn't that cry just so precious?"

And then I punched myself in my own face.

The End.

Just kidding. Moving along...

As she was leaving the Conference Room, I said "He was hungry, huh?" and she sighed and said "He's always hungry."

I wanted to hug this girl that I don't know beyond a casual "How are you feeling?" in the hallway. I wanted to hug her and promise her that it will get better. I wanted to tell her all about how fast it goes and how one day she'll wake up and he'll be turning two and she'll be all like WHO STOLE MY BABY? I wanted to tell her that someday, maybe like six months from now, she'll hear the cry of someone else's newborn and her heart will sink with the realization that her own baby isn't a newborn anymore.

But I didn't say any of it because she's too tired and sore and preoccupied to listen to my droning anyways and she doesn't want to hear it.

I was reminded just how incredibly lucky I am.

Because this girl? She's all alone. And she has no car to use to take her baby to the doctor. She rode downtown with him in a baby carrier on the city bus. A two week old on the city bus. Can you imagine? I was afraid to take my kids to Target when they were two weeks old, in a CAR SEAT. As I watched her put the baby back into the carrier to walk him to the clinic that I know is more than ten blocks away, carrying a diaper bag, purse and a baby, an actual tear trickled down my face.

I complain a lot about everything I don't have. I complain that my son isn't the greatest sleeper and that I wish my mom lived closer. I complain that I am tired and alone and overworked.

But I have two cars. And a house. And a wonderful, helpful, incredibly patient husband.

And I need to start remembering what I do have more often.

Comments

[The Mommy]

Stop making a highly hormonal, new(ish) mommy cry like that! Seriously? My newborn daughter sounds exactly like my Youngest Boy does when he does his pteradactyl impersonation :)

Good post. Thanks for the reminder...

[Ana Brightful]

Amen, sister. We ALL need to remember what we have.

[Becks]

love it...and it makes my heart hurt. we do need to be thankful for what we have.