Baby Mine

Tonight I checked my email and opened a video sent to me by my husband’s cousin. It was the “baby mine” song from Dumbo, with all of the original animation. The hubby was sitting on the other side of the room when he heard the song flowing from my computer. Then he heard me sniffle. “Are you crying? What are you watching?” he asked. I couldn’t get the words out for a few moments, then my voice choked on the phrase, “It’s not what it seems.”

Yes, I was crying as I watched the momma elephant swing her baby to sleep with her trunk, but my mind was elsewhere. My mind was wading in the words of my aunt who responded to the video, “[My son] and I watched [this video] many times at the Children’s Hospital when we were waiting at the clinic…cherish motherhood…” Her son passed at a young age. I cannot imagine that pain. It hurts to wonder.

This is the time in my life that I get to devote myself to my little ones. I never want to neglect this opportunity. The moments they are small enough to swaddle in my arms and sing them to sleep only last so long (then they begin to prefer that “Mater Monster truck” sing them to sleep…though I’ll cherish that memory too). Tonight I swaddled baby J in my arms long after I heard his breath slow into soft, rhythmic sleep.