New Baby

I'm feeling rather nostalgic and reminiscent today. Especially about motherhood. It could have something to do with the fact that both of my darling little babies have unanimously chosen to nap at the same time today.

How sweet it is to tip toe from one room to the next and admire their cherubic little faces as they lay nestled, resting in their beds. Not only is there one little angel but two that can be admired at the same time. Now that is refreshing to this mother! To experience the more "romantic" side of motherhood is at times a rare occurrence considering the needs and demands of children are often precedent over the sweet and touching moments of their presence.

This case of nostalgia could also have something to do with the fact that Toby's sister had her first boy (second baby) early this morning. When Sarah called this morning with the news, I could hear the exhilaration and joy in her voice as she told me the news of his birth.

I immediately thought back to the morning after Janae was born and how excited and energized I felt. I wanted to call everybody and would've even called the President had I had his number in my cell phone. I was on a thrilling high and wanted to share my excitement with the whole world.

I'll never forget sitting in the hospital bed and cupping Janae's soft and hairy head as she lay sleeping in my arms after getting her tummy filled. While Toby slept on into the morning, I was well revived after only a short nap following her birth. I bounded all over the room fixing my hair and primping my robe and then delving into my generously packed diaper bag and pulling out an entire wardrobe of clothing for my tiny baby girl.

I fitted her up with a delicate flowered sleeper, tiny lavender socks and then swaddled her in a feminine little blanket. I topped her off with a delicate bow in her thick, dark hair and then just sat there and looked at her.

I felt no pain, no distraction and no discomfort. I was like a little girl playing with my doll and felt about as carefree as a young girl does in early childhood.


Just hours after Janae was born

All dressed up for the first time

It's weird how babies do such unbelievable things to you. The pain and agony and sleeplessness and fatigue they cause all continually go by unnoticed and unregretted. To observe the complete surrender a parent has for this tiny little person, is almost worth defining as plain stupid because of the total captivity the parent puts themselves in through the entrance of their tiny baby into this world.

Jobs are forsaken, sleep is given up, friends are neglected, spouses are denied, food is unimportant, health is laid aside, schedules are destroyed and a life of prediction and plan is replaced with one of unknown and indefinite days.

It is truly amazing how a parent chooses such a life and calls it fun and enjoyable. All for a tiny baby.

This quote by Elizabeth Prentiss was so fitting for my thoughts today...

Here is a sweet, fragrant mouth to kiss; here are two more feet to make music with their pattering about my nursery. Here is a soul to train for God; and the body in which it dwells is worthy all it will cost, since it is the abode of a kingly tenant. I may see less of friends, but I have gained one dearer than them all, to whom, while I minister in God's name, I will make a willing sacrifice of what little leisure for my own recreation my other darlings had left me. Yes, my precious baby, you are welcome to your mother's heart, welcome to her time, her strength, her health, her tenderest cares, her life-long prayers! Oh, how rich I am, how truly, how wondrously blest!

Elijah Jan Morhart

(Jan is the Haitian form of John and is pronounced "Jahn.")

9 pounds 4 oz. 21" long

Born at 2:55am April 4, 2006