Babies know more than we think.

I think babies can sense how you are feeling. A few years ago, about a year after I had surgery for endometriosis, I was helping my friend watch her cousins for the whole weekend. Even after being the one to wake up with the 7 month old baby in the middle of the night, I wanted kids more than ever, possibly because I was faced with the fact that I may not be able to have children of my own. One night, I was in the baby's room alone with her. She was crawling around on the floor, trying to escape out her bedroom door. I was thinking about not being able to have children and a few tears fell. Right as they did, the baby stopped, turned her head around, looked at me and headed my way. She crawled up to me, put her hand on my hand, laid her head down on the floor with her face a few inches from mine with her butt sticking up in the air and smiled at me. She laid their for a few seconds, then got up, turned back around and continued her escape from her bedroom. How did she know? Yesterday I started getting sick. I have a terrible sore throat and feel run down. I have been trying to keep my distance from the baby in case I am contagious, even though my job is to watch her. Even at 2 1/2 months, I swear she knew I wasn't feeling well. She laid on her gym entertaining herself a lot longer than usual. Every now and then, she would look at me and smile. And she would grab my finger and hold on tight (which she doesn't do too often, she is too active). It felt like she knew I was sick and was trying to cheer me up. I don't think we give babies enough credit for what they know.

Comments

jm said…
So sweet! I, too, wonder if I'll be a mother. I think there are many people who need a mother - and many opportunities to mother them.
12/15/2005 11:29 PM
cdoc said…
I am not so worried about not being able to have kids anymore, I won't know for sure until I try and that won't be for a long time! And while I would like to have at least one of my own, I have always said since I was a little that I wanted to adopt, so I will definately do that.
12/16/2005 10:21 AM
Anonymous said…
Great entry, cdoc. Glad to be reading blogs again.
12/16/2005 7:13 PM
Anonymous said…
Great entry cdoc. I was just talking to a friend that was a former nanny that you and jdoc have a way with kids that I don't have. Does that mean I shouldn't have kids? Is that the Universe's way of telling me that there are mothers and then there are aunties that spoil their sister's babies ;-) I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get there.
12/19/2005 8:47 AM
Girl of Approval said…
There was an article that I read on-line about toddlers being very helpful but only helping when they knew you needed help. If you didn't need it, as in you threw something on the ground on purpose, they would not pick it up for you, but if you dropped on accident, they would assist. Very interesting article.
3/19/2006 11:08 PM
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