Cry Baby...

I have been guilty of being an ungrateful mother. I find myself getting so upset when my babies cry. I get angry. I get frustrated. I get sad. I yell and I cry with them. Sometimes I just sit silently and ignore it for a second because I cannot take it any more - or so I think. Of course, I CAN take more, but I choose not to, because I'm selfish. I want my sleep. I want my Facebook. I want to fold laundry and cook dinner.

But then I am reminded of what I would miss. There was a woman on one of the message boards I frequent. She had a baby in April 2009, just like Leonidas. She told her story of her c-section birth. This child that was born was her second. She had a baby that was stillborn the year before. I remember in her story how she related that as they took her baby out of her stomach, she kept repeating to herself, "Cry. Please cry," because with her first baby, she never got to hear that beautiful cry. Just silence. I think of what must have been this deafening silence after buying baby clothes, decorating the nursery, and going through baby name after baby name trying to find the perfect one. Oh, how indescribably amazing that first little cry must have been! It made ME cry just to hear that her second child was born alive and healthy - and screaming his little head off!

When my babies start to cry - when they won't STOP crying for hours - let me not forget how beautiful a cry can be. Let me remember that there are people out there who would give all that they have just to hear their baby cry.