Life's Little Laughs...and Precious Moments

This past week my little girl must have caught a bug of some sort going around. She was clearly not her normal self. She was having a hard time staying asleep at night; something that she had pretty much mastered by three months old. She was refusing to eat everything; odd because she normally will eat anything that comes any where near her mouth. She was experiencing diarrhea; her potty experiences are quite the opposite normally. My post today, however, is not to complain about her uncharacteristic behavior, it is actually quite the contrary.

The other night she woke up for the second night in a row around 2:30 a.m. I tried to let her settle herself back down, but knowing that she was feeling under the weather, I couldn't bear to just listen to her cry. I went into her bedroom and found her just sitting up crying (normally, if she's crying, she is either thrashing around in her crib, or standing up holding onto the railings). In an effort to settle her down I patted her lightly on the back with some soft words, but to my surprise she was sopping wet! My hand was merely on her shoulder! I was kind of frightened as to what might have caused her to be so wet so far up her back, surely it was not just a wet diaper!? Was she running such a high fever that it was sweat? Did she throw up? So I gently picked her up and no sooner than I had her in my arms, I knew exactly what had caused her to be so wet. I flipped the light on and my suspicion was confirmed. Diarrhea. Everywhere!

As I discovered the truth of it all, my disgust grew, but I was filled with compassion as well. Lydia had never looked at me in such a way. The feelings that she must have been having poured out of her eyes as she gazed up at me. I held her in my arms and knew that she needed her mommy right then. For the first time I truly felt as though she had a knowledge of who I was and that she sincerely loved me as her mother. As I took her clothes and her diaper off, she normally tries to make it practically impossible for me, she laid there as still as could be and never took her eyes off of me. It was as though she was telling me through her eyes, "thank you mommy" with all of her heart.
We both got in the warm shower (because if you hadn't noticed, in picking her up, I transferred some of the mess to myself of course). She continued to just lay in my arms, an act that is so rarely seen in Lydia that I think I would be safe to say that it was extinct. Occasionally she would look up at me again and speak to me with those beautiful big eyes of hers. As horrible as the situation was, I mean we were in the shower in the middle of the night, I would not have wanted to be any where else at that time. I would not trade that precious moment for any amount of sleep, no matter how tired I was. As we both stood under the stream of water I couldn't help but be reminded of the love that my mother has for me and the many nights she must have sacrificed sleep for my sake. Having a child of my own makes me realize how much my mother must have done for me that I am completely oblivious to. I know that Lydia will not remember this night, just as I do not remember those nights with my mother. But I will remember it and I am sure my mother remembers them. I was filled with compassion for my daughter as well as gratitude and love for my mother.
As I got her dressed again and pulled her blankets from her bed my thoughts turned to my Heavenly Father. This life is certainly to teach us how to become more like Him. I pondered how He must feel when our spirits are sick rather than our mortal bodies. I thought of His perfect love and how He must be there when we cry out 'Please help me' in the night as Lydia had done for me.
Among diarrhea and lack of sleep, it was a most beautiful night!

.....needless to say, one half hour after laying her back down and returning to my bed, she was crying again. I returned to her side to find none other than....yes....diarrhea, all over once again.