My almost 10-month-old is not a snuggler. I attribute this to the fact that she is my only child who did not nurse 50,000 times a day and thus does not have an attachment to me, or my small chest, like the other 3 did. I don’t think she is a budding psychopath that lacks human connection or anything. She just doesn’t want to curl up on my lap yet or snuggle into my neck.
I’m not crying. 😭😭😭😭😭
But, this morning, she went against her natural ways.
She’s been restless the past few days. Fighting off gunkiness, likely teething, and all the other excuses parents make for why their kid doesn’t sleep through the night at this point. I got up with her a little before 6AM because it was apparent she wasn’t going to fall asleep again for a while. She was fussy. I wasn’t sure why exactly until I set her down on the living room floor and she dead nuts looked me in the eyes, turned red, and pushed out a hefty round of crap into her fresh diaper I had just put on.
Mother fucker. Why do they always wait to crap in a new diaper? Like the damn birds that shit on your freshly cleaned car. They just KNOW.
After that press out, she was a bit better…but still struggling. She’s been exploring more solid foods lately and last night was broccoli florets. This was likely causing the extra grunts. She wasn’t happy and was on all fours making noises.
I sat on the floor and rested her massive head on my lap (84th percentile folks), trying to let her position help her, and give some comfort. Holy shit. She let me! She rested her cheek on my thigh and relaxed as I brushed her little bit of fuzzy hair with my hand. She closed her eyes a bit as a tickled her face. She was actually snuggling me!
We sat there for what seemed like hours to my 41-year-old body on the hard living room floor. But I would have sat there for as long as she wanted because my baby was being comforted by me. Granted, it was because she had the shits and the room smelt like it…. but I didn’t care. I’ll cherish that little memory of her chubby cheek in my lap, the cool hard floor under me, and the aroma of broccoli in the air.