The Power of a Smile

I've spent a lot of time thinking about childbirth the last 6 weeks and how cruel and unfair it is. Let's recap, shall we??

One month before the event...so uncomfortable that you can't sleep even though you're exhausted. Oh and you have to get up and use the bathroom like 20 times in the middle of the night.

Tired.

At least for me both times, contractions start before bedtime...no sleep all night.

Fatigued.

Twenty plus hours of pain and misery ending with the most physically demanding thing you've ever done in your entire life.

Ridiculously exhausted.

One to two days in the hospital with every nurse, doctor, food service worker, etc known to man coming into your room every 30 minutes to do who knows what. Oh and you have a newborn.

Beyond exhausted.

Three months of waking up several times a night. Never sleeping ever. Even when your baby sleeps for 5 hours straight, your maternal instincts wake you up wondering if she's okay and wondering why she hasn't woken up to eat yet.

There are no words!!!

But...

Then that cute little monster gives you a smile and somehow you forget how tired you are and think that he/she is the cutest thing in the entire world. In my opinion, the phase before the smile comes is God's way of teaching us unconditional love because I seriously feel like you give everything you have and get NOTHING in return. But that smile somehow makes it all worth it! I mean seriously, look how cute that is!