‘Today, I counted down the minutes until bedtime. You tested me at every turn, whined and screamed. And me? I lost my cool.’: Mom learns to cherish difficult toddler years

“But no matter how many things go wrong in a day, how imperfect I am, how bad your behavior was, when I watch you peacefully sleeping, I want to breathe the entire day in, even the bad. I want to take in your littleness and keep it forever. Because you’ll always be that newborn who snuggled right into me, and stole my entire heart.”

Mom shares photos from son's journey with microcephaly

The doctor said, ‘No one ever told you about his head circumference? It’s really small.’ My heart sank.’: Mom of baby with microcephaly fights for diagnosis, ‘I wouldn’t trade him for the world’

“I laid him down and I noticed his head was turned all the way to his right and his arms were bent up. He looked almost frozen. I told my husband, ‘Ben just did something weird.’ We had seen many pediatricians and they all told me he was healthy. But I knew something wasn’t right.”

‘You look in her eyes and don’t need to say a word. You feel her sadness and defeat. Without choice, you carry it home.’: Birth worker shares candid peek inside emotional profession

“The phone rings. A client of yours is bleeding at 15 weeks. She’s worried and has a history of loss. You go over to listen for a heartbeat to find no fetal tone, no baby’s heartbeat. That look on her face; you carry that home and it sits on your mind heavily for the next few days. You couldn’t stop thinking about her even if you tried.”

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