Life After Pain

When I got home from my mission I decided that if I ever wrote a book I'd title it Life After Pain and it would be about how the Atonement can help heal all wounds, like the loss of a loved one or a romantic heartbreak. Working at West Ridge (the residential treatment center for at risk youth) showed me the need for some chapters on life after addiction and abuse. After the last three weeks though, I now know how I would start my book:

Abraham, to me, is life after pain.

Giving birth to him was hard, and it hurt. But now there is this new little person in the world, and he is full of life. There are trials and hardships that hurt, both the body and spirit (sometimes at the same time) and the atonement is there to help us heal, but I think it's important to note that the pain isn't really the point. It's the life that results because of it.

Speaking of Abraham:

The past three weeks have been hard, but I am grateful. I am SO grateful that he nurses really well. He sleeps pretty well too, at least during the day. I'm thankful that Hyrum isn't jealous of his brother.  I'm really grateful that I'm finally starting to feel like myself again. I'm healing and my hormones are no longer so out of control. For a while I was sure I was really going crazy. I'm grateful that my wedding ring fits again, and look forward to the day my pants do too. 

Abraham is a sweet little spirit. He doesn't like contention and hates it when Hyrum throws tantrums or needs to be scolded. He has a very mellow disposition and loves to be cuddled. He has some reflux problems which means he can't sleep flat in a crib. He likes his swing though so he usually sleeps there. When he spits up, it almost all comes out his nose. He's not a big fan of having his diaper changed, and hates having his clothing changed. He did well with his first bath though.

You can see his little extra pinkie tied and about to fall off. It got a little infected, but the doctor cleaned it all out when she cut off the dead finger and now his hand looks like this:

We are super happy to have our new little guy with us. I'm really looking forward to school being out for the holidays so our family can spend some time together.