Sharing THIS Moment With Your Baby

Have you been living in the moment since your baby was born or have you been secretly thinking about when it gets better or easier? I'm not sure it will get better or easier, but I can bet that we will all wish for this time back. In particular if we have had the audacity to wish it away.

About two weeks after the birth of my daughter, I looked down at her while she was nursing. I had been engrossed in Facebook status after status and hadn't really been paying attention. In that instant though when I looked down, I realized: "I'm never getting this time back." That alone was the reality check I needed to start living in the present moment. I needed to live my life with my daughter and not be so interested in the life of everyone else. I needed to disconnect for several periods a day in order to breathe in the joy that was my daughter.

I'm not perfect. There are still times when I am more absorbed in what inspirational visuals my yogi friends are sharing or giggling at the snarky comments of my friends about their co-workers, but I started making the effort every day to put my phone away and really spend a concentrated period of time looking at my daughter, interacting with her, and building our unbreakable bond.

At least once a day, I meditate on my daughter. The clock does not dictate this but my daughter does. I wait until my girl is in a quiet, alert phase. Those precious moments when she is calm and using her senses to explore the world around her. We sit in a quiet spot and start our meditation. Meditation is about bringing your focus to one point. Before my daughter, I would meditate on a candle flame. Now she has become the most grounding focus point in my life.

Starting at the crown of her head, I take in her peach fuzz cowl-lick the same ashen brown color asher father's. She will likely be bald until 18 months which was when I sprouted hair.

I absorb that her eyes have a sparkle unlike any diamond I have seen. They are full of curiosity, wonder, and fire. Her eyes are a deep ocean bluish-grey just like mine.  It has become our tradition to sit there and make eye contact. To really see each other and offer up a piece of our soul.

There is her button nose, what I call her "chunka monka cheeks", and  her mouth which is usually spewing out some syllable or sound. She typically has the edges of her mouth curled up into a smile that radiates I'm sweet, but I'm sassy. She might be little but she is not short on personality. We spend time just being happy together. Happy to have this time where we can just be.

I take in her length sometimes even measuring her. I take in her hands and let the little fingers curl around mine. I usually can get a little giggle from her by making a silly face. Those giggles are the most beautiful symphony in the world. Mozart and Beethoven have nothing on those joyful notes.

Exercising her legs, working them in and out, we both enjoy the realization that her feet are in fact attached to her body. Those are her feet. She loves looking at them and frequently has some kind of fancy footwear on for entertainment. She loves her shoes. A girl after her mom's heart.

We spend time looking at books and taking in the pictures. Sometimes I read the words on the page and sometimes I make up our own story. We play with stuffed animals and instruments all the while allowing me to see what she enjoys and has no interest in. What makes her excited? Right now the answer to that question is whatever she can put in her mouth! Sometimes we do baby yoga or infant massage. Other times we just lay side by side and look up at the ceiling.


Whatever it is, we do it together. And we do it without distraction.

Living in the moment hasn't made time slow down. It doesn't speed it up either. It strictly allows me to look back and know that I did not take one of these precious moments for granted. There is not one opportunity that I have missed out on. Things can feel like they happened yesterday or forever ago but the important thing is that I was there.