The Weight of a Baby

When you find that perfect someone that you know completes you, knows the best and the worst of you, and still loves you, that is a great day. You get married and it's off to the honeymoon. As a couple with no kids, you go to the movies, travel, hang out with friends, and learn to take in as much of each other as you can. Years go by and together you decide that your life would be even more complete, even more perfect, if you started a family. Your parents want to be grandparents, your friends are having babies, and you know that now is the time. You try, and try, try, and try. People ask. People don't ask. -The weight of a baby.

You begin to lose hope, and then it happens. You get the message, you start seeing the signs, you schedule the appointment, and you finally see the perfect little nugget of you and your beloved. You are fine - the baby is fine. You eat healthy most of the time, you try not to fall into the "eating for two" but those Dairy Queen Blizzards are hard to resist - the weight of a baby.

Months go by, your belly swells, joy soars, nerves kick in, and the time finally arrives. It's a rough go, but your body is made to do this. Love surrounds you and he finally arrives. A sigh of relief, the tears fall, and he's placed on your chest - your heart couldn't feel any bigger - the weight of a baby

He's 5 months old, he needs to take a nap, and you start rocking. You smell the top of his head, let your lips linger to savor the warmth, and you feel his body relax. And you rock. And you wait a little longer to put him to bed, because you love the weight of his body on yours - the weight of a baby. 

We have bad days, most are good. Mothers are the worst critics of themselves. Each day, I know that I could have, should have done a better job. Not for me, but for them. Then a few moments in a rocking chair and all is right with the world.