i met my best friend’s baby girl today. she was all of 27 hours old and nameless. bundled and swaddled and bamboozeled with adoration from her two parents entirely high on the beauty of life and sleeplessness.

by the time i got around to holding this little cherub, i found myself amazed at how much i had forgotten about the newest of little ones.

like their noises. aside from their screams of OMG WHAT IS THIS PLACE AND WHERE IS MY AMNIOTIC FLUID, the nuzzle sounds as they root and then latch to their mama. the grunts as their squirm and get themselves as nestled to you as humanly possible. the gasps they make when they startle.

and goodness, i forgot how they startle. and then the arms go up with the fingers spread and you feel horrible because you, YOU, are the cause of their traumatic awakening.

watching my friend and her husband, new parents but taking to the role so easily and with such pride, i remembered the craziness that comes with it all.

to think that you spend days in a hospital (assuming you have a hospital birth) surrounded by doctors and nurses and consultants and all of these people who you picked to be a part of your birthing team because to you they are THE BEST at what they do… and then they just let you leave.

WITH A BABY.

FOR. EVER.

it’s insane. absolutely insane. void of all logic. these people you have entrusted your prenatal care to, your child’s pediatric care to, have all of a sudden deemed you worthy.

and good gracious, it is spectacular and life changing and immense in more ways than i can possibly convey in words.

words are so menial compared to the sounds that take place when a child is born.

it is those noises that tell the story. it’s the sounds of a mother sighing with relief when her baby latches successfully to feed. it’s the soft hum of a daddy enjoying his own skin-to-skin time with his baby girl. it’s the love that is felt with the stroke of a baby’s cheek. the care that goes in to changing a diaper on brand new skin. and the disbelief that all of this, all of this beauty is your world.

that kind of communication is where the heart of a family lies… noises included.