From a mother's heart

This will be an entry without pics. Have to jot down a few thoughts. My friend, Hilary (who has a baby a few weeks a part from Aiden), and I compare notes on what we're doing with our babies. She began putting Harper on a bedtime routine, so therefore I started one. Just last week, Aiden developmentally was ready for a routine. We bathe him around 7:15ish and then I bring him up to his nursery. With only a nightlight and a certain lullaby CD on the iPod, I rock and feed him. Within 10 minutes, he's fed and out cold in my arms (snuggled up to me, I might add). I lay him in the crib and he's out.

I began noticing a few days ago that when it's time for his afternoon nap, he wants to be in my arms. Then and only then will he snuggle up and go to sleep. Last night, he was fussy, so we put him in bed with us. Mike went to heat up the milk and I brought Aiden close to me to calm him down til the milk was ready. He snuggled up and calmed down. After he ate, he wanted to snuggle up to me and was out cold.

You may wonder why I am blogging about this. Here's why. His delivery was filled with drama, as you may know. I had to recover, he was in NICU. I had a serious case of Post-Partum and because of that dealt with all kinds of issues. During that recovery period, Mike continued to be the hero husband and father that he is. He would go to NICU and hold him at night, while I was in the Women's Surgical recovering (different part of the hospital). Once Aiden came home, I still had more recovering to do (and still do to some level). Mike was up at night with him and Aiden definitely was comforted by him. Mind you, I had my times when I was able to bond and love on him, but Mike was really doing a lot of the 'heavy lifting'. Deep down inside, I wondered if Aiden would choose me the way he chose Mike.

The past couple of days have been great. Even though, everyone has said that Aiden knows who his mommy his - as he always follows me with his eyes and smiles/giggles, him choosing to snuggle up to me and calm down have been like heaven hugs for me. I am melted to the core. Love, love, love our son!