{The Ordinary Moments ’16} #24 Cuddles with my babies

Way back in February, when I found out I was pregnant, one of the things I was most excited about, above anything else, was that first moment that Alfie would meet his brother or sister. It’s something which has been in my mind long before I was pregnant and it’s something that will always make me tear up just thinking about it – I can’t think of anything more special.

For the first few months, Alfie didn’t really understand much about me being pregnant – we would involve him as much as we could and talk to him lots about the baby but I don’t think he really started to ‘get it’ until just recently when he felt the baby move.

Whenever I’ve felt the baby moving, and I’ve shouted him over, in the hope he would feel something, he would put his hand on my belly and look at me, waiting to feel something. If I felt it, I would ask him if he felt anything too, but he never did. I think because they were only small movements, he thought it was just me breathing or moving my belly myself. Recently though, the baby has been going crazy and the moves are getting so big that you can see my belly moving quite a lot. Whenever this has happened, I’ve asked Alfie to watch my belly or feel it and the first time he really, truly felt it and saw it was such a brilliant moment. He had the biggest smile on his face, like he couldn’t believe what had happened and it was actually the baby in Mummy’s tummy. Since then, he’s taken a real interest and will ask a few times a day ‘is the baby moving?’ and sometimes he’ll rush over to try to get a feel.

I’ve been lucky over the summer holiday’s that I’ve had a few extra days off with him as he’s not been at nursery as often and they haven’t been particularly exciting days and they’ve been very ordinary, getting on with jobs around the house, making tea, cleaning etc, but on these days we’ve had special moments on these days. On a number of occasions, Alfie has come and cuddled up to me, with his head rested on my belly and his hand cuddling around it and it just makes my heart burst. He is so desperate for me to have a girl and refers to my bump as she or her – I really hope I can give him his wish.

Over the last week or so, he’s really been able to feel the baby move much more and he loves it, which just makes me so proud that he’s so interested and so happy when it happens. Just last night, I asked if he would come and have a cuddle with me before he went up for his bath and he said ‘of cours I will Mummy, no problem’ and snuggled right up to me and bump. I’ve been able to enjoy quite a few cuddles with both my babies this week and it’s made me even more excited for their first meeting. I can’t wait to be able to cuddle them both once the baby is with us on the outside and I don’t know how I’m going to keep it together during that first meeting.

I’m due in 9 weeks, so hopefully, I won’t have much longer to wait.

We’ve decided that Alfie will be the first person to meet the baby when it has been born and I honestly can’t wait.