Praying When Your Baby Won't Stop Crying

If you are religious, you already know what I'm going to say, and if you are not, you probably didn't make it past the title. :o) But this is important, nonetheless, and I share this because I know that God does work in our lives for our good, and He does answer prayers.

When my son was a newborn, I was a wreck. He was delivered via emergency C-section after 16 hours of labor. He spent the first day in the NICU with hypoglycemia. Although I visited him every 3 hours to nurse, it just didn't seem to be going too well and by the time we left the hospital, I felt we were doomed. Then the crying started.

You know what I mean. They are perfect angels until you pull them out of your car and they smell "home." Since he was my first baby, I didn't know what normal was, so I didn't know he was crying excessively or what to do when he did cry. I was just trying to heal myself, keep him fed, and get him to sleep. Evenings were the WORST. He hardly slept at all, and he really didn't sleep at night. Every day, something different worked, and sometimes, nothing did.

I will never forget when I was at the end of my rope one morning after a bad night. Morning wasn't much better and I found myself crying as well. I couldn't take it anymore. Finally, yes FINALLY, I prayed and asked God to either give me the patience to endure this or stop my baby's crying. Almost immediately, the crying stopped. I don't know why I was surprised, and yes, I did kick myself for waiting until I was about to lose it to pray. Isn't that what we always do? We cry out to God once we're in dire straits; we don't ask him before we get there.

I decided then that I would start each day asking for a peaceful day. I slacked (a lot) and again found myself about to lose it with my baby. Again, I prayed, and again- the crying stopped. Now I don't pretend that God always gives us what we ask for. But He certainly does bring us to Him for our needs, doesn't He?

My "baby" is 5 now. We both survived, and now we learn together about the things God does in our lives and how He works them out for our good.