Surprises of my Motherhood #surprisedbymotherhood

For about six months now, I am a momma to this cutie.

For a while at the beginning, each afternoon, he needed "momma time" - curled up on my chest, peacefully sleeping.  My favorite.  :)

It amazes me the effects I have on him.

When he is hungry, I can feed him (at least while I was breastfeeding for the first few months). And what I ate affected him - like when he had gas cramps from certain foods!  That made for restless nights for all of us.

When he is upset, he can lay on my chest and calm down - skin-on-skin or not.  This also goes for when we're in a crowd of people or unfamiliar environment - R and I provide a familiar baseline for him.

But if I'm upset, and crying (as I was one night about the loss of my grandmother), he absorbs the emotion as well.  Then BOTH of us are crying!

When I was stressed about breastfeeding, then he became stressed as well.

My brain is mushy - I want to be able to have a conversation about something other than baby stuff for more than 10 minutes. I want to be able to concentrate on things I need to do - church or future work obligations - even when Munchkin is happily playing or sound asleep.

My familiar place is in his dark bedroom, middle of the night feeding, lit by the star lamp on the wall.

I love the way he falls asleep after eating, making faces, and snuggling farther and farther down.

I love how he sleeps with his hands up, or putting his hand under my arm in the back.

I love his belly laugh that comes more frequently now, especially with R.

I love his smile that used to come after eating but now comes in response to other smiles or singing.

I love laughing at his perfectly timed farts or burps (though maybe not smelling them!).

I love watching and listening to him play.

I love the way he communicates with fake words: Ning and ging

I love how handsome or snuggly he looks in certain outfits.

I love how he and my grandfather really enjoyed (and entertained) each other when we visited in July and earlier this month.

I love the way he now holds his head or face or ear when he's sleepy

Wow, I love this kid!

*blog post begun when he was 5 weeks old....