Not everyone who tells you to rest wants you rested.

Sometimes the hand that offers to hold the baby so you can sleep is not offering to help you carry the weight.

Sometimes it is only waiting for you to close your eyes.

Against my chest, Toby stirred, and the paper on the exam table crinkled, and his cry had gone from the outraged wail of that morning down to a thin, rough little whimper that scared me more than any scream.

His skin burned through his thin cotton sleeper.