The Baby Whisperer

Last night, a little past midnight, a nurse from the nursery brought John Patrick to our room, per our instructions, so he could breast feed. We heard the knock on our door, wearily got up and prepared to try to breast feed him. When the nurse rolled him into the room in the bassinet, he was really wailing, probably angry at having been aroused from a deep sleep. His face was red as a beet and his eyes were scrunched up, as he cried.

I lifted him out of the bassinet, kicking and screaming, and handed him to Jude. As I thought to myself, "this is not going to go well," I witnessed an amazing transformation in his mood. Jude held him close and very quietly, started talking to him, reassuring him. We only had one light on, so the room was dim, and I smiled as I watched my wife comfort our son. Almost immediately, he stopped crying and squirming, became really quiet and just looked up at her. It was a beautiful, transcendent moment and, I think, probably a sign of things to come.

In a text message she sent me last night, before Jude and I went to sleep, a friend of mine - Lisa Kirkham - summed up perfectly how I feel about the experience of child birth. She said, "having a baby is like falling in love again. It's such a great feeling." I couldn't have said it better myself.