The Ability to Comfort

Sometimes I come up with ideas for blog posts while I am driving to work, or when I recall something funny or sweet that the girls said or did or when I can't sleep and I'm thinking of everything I need to do the next day.  On Friday night (or I should say on Saturday morning), I came up with the idea for this post. 

It was about 1:45 a.m. on Saturday morning and Abby started crying "I want my mama".  She has been sick with an ear infection so I went in and she felt warm.  I gave her some tylenol, picked her up and rocked her.  She cuddled into me and was calm.  I sat there, tired as can be, rocking and cuddling and thinking what an wonderful thing it is to be able to comfort a child - when they are sick or sad or just want to be hugged.  The ability to comfort is not something that you learn in school.  It's something you learn by example - you see how your parents comfort you, how your other loved ones comfort you and how your friends comfort you.  I rocked and rocked and thought how proud I was that I could comfort little Abby and what a special bonding moment this was.

So, that is what I drafted in my head at 1:45 a.m.  And then... Abby wouldn't go back to sleep.  I'm sure she was uncomfortable from the ear infection and the fever but she just kept crying out every few minutes.  I would go in, pick her up, rock her, put her back down and then crawl into my own bed. Then she would start crying.  I finally woke up Bruno and said it was his turn to comfort her.  Well, she is going through a "mommy-only" stage so she did not want anything to do with him (even though he cared for her all day Friday while I went to work).  So, I kept trying to get her calmed down until she finally fell asleep at about 4:00 a.m.

Needless to say, all the confidence and pride I had about my ability to comfort went out the window!  It is clear that the ability to comfort someone else is something we all must constantly work on - just preferably not at 2:00 in the morning!