Thankful isn't quite the right word...

I have about 100 of these same pictures on my phone.


They probably don't look like anything special to anyone else, but it's one of my favorite views of the baby, down in my arms.

Last night as I was rocking Maggie after the 4th time of getting out of bed within an hour (not complaining, just setting the scene), I looked down at her. It was so dark and so quiet and a picture could never really capture the moment I had with her right then...there is just something absolutely inexplicable about holding this tiny little person in your arms. And when she goes from squirming and wriggling and tensing to suddenly relaxed and peaceful and snuggled so perfectly in the crook of your arm, all of the sudden you forget that it's midnight and you've been out of bed 4 times and you just think that you could sit in that rocker all night and hold her. It made me think back to our first few weeks together...to the days when we would literally spend all day on the couch because I didn't want to stop holding her.

They may look like wasted pictures on my phone, but I know that someday when she's 5...then 12...then 17...I'll look back at them and remember those perfect moments that I had holding her in my arms.

...I'm not sure what the right word is...but I know the feeling exactly.