When you're pregnant, you can think of nothing but having your own body to yourself again; yet after giving birth you realize that the biggest part of you is now somehow external, subject to all sorts of dangers and disappearance, so you spend the rest of your life trying to figure out how to keep her close enough for comfort. That's the strange thing about being a mother: Until you have a baby, you don't even realize how much you were missing one.

I'm telling you, if aliens landed on earth today and took a good hard look at why babies get born, they'd conclude that most people had children by accident, or because they drink too much on a certain night, or because birth control isn't one hundred percent, or for a thousand other reasons that really aren't very flattering.

I thought lightning wasn't supposed to strike in the same place twice....sure it does...but only if you're too dumb to move.

If I have gained anything over these months, it is the knowledge there is no starting over- only living with the mistakes you've made.

You keep distracting me,” I tell her. “All I’m doing is sitting here talking to you!” “Exactly,” I say, and I smile at her.j

Asking me to describe my son is like asking me to hold the ocean in a paper cup

It turns out that sharing the past with someone is different from reliving it when you’re alone. It feels less like a wound, more like a poultice.