Removing gunk

With a new person in my life now, a huge part of my time is spent feeding him, changing his nappies, changing his clothes, winding him, carrying him and the list goes on. One thing that I can't get used to, is his crying. His crying can be a few short bursts of grunting and wailing or wailing continuously or wailing continuously with bouts of high pitched screams. The third one can bring intense pain to my head especially if his mouth is within half a metre from my ear.

Most of his cries and whimpering are because of hunger, a wet or poopy nappy or wind in his tummy. But sometimes its because of the stuff that I am doing to him. I don't intentionally make him cry, it's just that the things I do bring some discomfort to him. Those things include:

1. Changing his nappy - especially when I am wiping his bottom with a wet wipe after he has had a poop; and because he sometimes has such a big one that there's poop everywhere! So the cleaning takes slightly longer to make sure all the 'cracks and crevices' are poop free. This longer cleaning annoys him and he will either start crying or give me more work by 'spraying' on me.

2. Removing dried milk bits on his face - when I have the opportunity to feed him with the bottle, I will spend at least 30 minutes staring into his little face. During that time, I will notice dried milk bits around his eyes or nose. Usually I will make a mental note to myself that I have to clean his face with a wet towel later or give him a bath if he hasn't had one the day before. But sometimes after 20 minutes of feeding him and noticing those dried milk bits, I can't help but try to pick them off with my fingers. This clearly annoys him and he wails for a couple of seconds till I stop doing it.

3. Trying to pick up his boogers - also happens usually when I am feeding him with the bottle. I can see up his nose and in his nostrils are humongous dried chunks of boogers. If they are close to the edge of his nostril, I will use my pinky nail to pick it out. Again, this usually results in him wailing for a couple of seconds to express his annoyance.

From my point of view, I am cleaning his bottom so that he will not develop a nappy rash; I am cleaning his face so that he will look fresher (and cuter :D); and I am clearing his nostrils so that he can breathe better. For him, its just discomfort that he doesn't like to go through.

This sort of reminded me of a clip that one of my pastors showed during our prayer meeting a while back. It's called God's chisel. God's chisel can often make us feel uncomfortable but it's only when He removes the gunk in our life that we become the masterpiece that He has designed us to be.