Things I Never Want to Forget

-When I was pregnant, Noah reacted strongly to Josh's voice. He would be still for hours, and then Josh would come into the room and start talking and he'd go nuts. He didn't do this when I talked, or when other people talked, just when Josh did. Like most newborns, Noah was alert when he was born and within an hour or so fell asleep. He slept a ton that night (and didn't open his eyes when I fed him every few hours). The next day, we were so excited to finally see him awake again. I was holding him out away from me so that we could both look at him and he just kind of sat there while I was talking to him. When Josh started talking, though, Noah's eyes got huge and he slowly turned his head to look at him. Noah just sat there, those eyes so big and looking so amazed, like "Wow, that's the guy I've been listening to all this time". It was so sweet to see my two boys connecting like that.

In the hospital

-Noah was just shy of six weeks old. We had seen lots of sleep smiles, but nothing we could for sure say was the real deal. I was holding him as he was falling asleep and looked down at him. We made eye contact, I smiled, he smiled back at me, and I knew for sure it was the real thing. There's nothing in the world that compares to the feeling I get when I see him smile, even though it probably happens thirty times a day now. It never gets old, and I always want to remember that first time.

-A couple of weeks ago, Noah woke up in the middle of the night and was having a hard time falling back to sleep. Not crying, just kind of squirming and grunting. I reached over the side of the bed and put my hand on his chest. His little hand, that he had broken out of his swaddle, moved around a few times until it found mine. He instantly relaxed and fell asleep with his hand resting on mine. It made me feel good that all he needed was to know that his mama was there.