Strange primal confessions of motherhood.

[Alibab1]

I have noticed a couple of fairly primal, animalistic things I have done since having children and wondered if you can report similar?

When my children were very little babies / toddlers I could smell when they were tired. They gave off some kind of unmistakeable scent and I would catch myself sniffing their heads and then that informing me on their state of energy! It's not something I do now, nor do I notice that smell. Perhaps I was more intune back then. I recall it was an intense and pleasant, but definate smell of tiredness. And very accurate!

Also, and I still do this, a kiss on the forehead is a fairly accurate measure of fever. If they felt warm via this method I would then crack out a thermometer of course But the kiss itself seems to be my first stop and my lips being a better gauge for their temp than a hand...

Anyone else got similar primal confessions?

I used to let down breastmilk.when I saw cute animals....

I was obsessed with the smell of ds breath when he was a baby - like sweet tea (not in a ketone way). Still do but he's 2 now so it's not as delightful. I can smell on his breath when he's poorly, its like raw mince.

I quite often crawl into his bed when he's asleep for a little snuggle, heads together, breathing in his breath.

I always sleep best if he's in the same room as me and I can hear him. There's something very right about having your child close to you to sleep, even though generally he is in his own room, I relish staying at my parents as we share a bed there ( me and ds not me and my parents!)

When he was about a week old mil walked out of the room I was in holding him, I felt absolute panic at him being away from me.

Yes to the milky breath! With both of mine it was the thing I adored the most.

When both of mine were born it was the smell. A really primal smell.

It was bloody and meaty and utterly delicious. Sounds disgusting but the smell was unlike anything I'd experienced and I found it totally intoxicating.

I also use my lips as a thermometer on DD's head. I spent so many hours rubbing my lips on her fuzzy head when she was little. No idea what that was all about!

I’m obsessed with it all! But yes definitely to the smell thing, and kissing him.

When my newborn DD moved her arm or leg or other part of her body it felt like it was my arm or leg moving. Like we were the same person. Weird.

Ooh, I had that too Alfreda. For about the first 48 hours I felt as though I was looking at myself or something.

I think I can smell when my two are ill. They both had low fevers the other week and smelt different.

I rub my lips on her hair for hours too!

This one isn't me but DH - he told me that when DS was a few weeks old he happened to smell something that smelt a bit like baby poo in the street and had the most overwhelming feeling of missing DS but accompanied by terrible sadness, like DS had been taken from him rather than just being safe at home with me - he described it as something primal...

I thought there was something wrong with me because I didn't love the smell of DS as a newborn - everyone went on about the amazing newborn smell and he just smelt like blood and my insides to me, which made me sad as it was obviously covering up this amazing smell. It was ages later that I discovered that apparently that is the smell?!

@BitOfFun

I do remember that during labour I went into a kind of 'zone' where I was aware of nothing but my body and birthing this baby. I'd had no drugs ar all, but it was the strangest sort of biological high. It lasted for several hours after the baby was born.

I had that same feeling with my DD, but I was off my tits on pethidine by that time, so I don't know how biological it was!

My digestive system and my DD’s were perfectly in sync for the first few years (minus the newborn stage). Even now (9yo) we compete for the loo a lot of the time.

When she’s away from me, I still instinctively know if she’s ‘been’ that day. I’m so used to knowing, that I use it when I know we’re going somewhere with a long drive or no loos. I’ll say, ‘go and try for a poo, get it out of the way for today if you can’ and although she sometimes tries to lie that she’s been already, I always catch her out!

I wanted to lick her all the time as though I was a cat.

I did have an amazing high after birth - I wouldn't say it was otherwise particularly a great birth but he was born at 10pm and I was buzzing all night - I didn't sleep a wink, which turned out to be an error later - with what felt like the most incredible drugs ever. I only had gas and air which is supposed to clear your body quickly so I don't think it was that. I have this photo that I absolutely treasure because I took it at 2am, a selfie of me holding DS, which I took because I felt like the most amazing lionness/goddess and wanted to preserve that for posterity. Looked at in the cold light of day, without a mad hormonal rush, I don't look like a goddess, I look like a very tired woman who had been in labour for 20 of the last 24 hours...

I also never relate to the posts about how people can't bear having visitors/their babies passed around because my instinct was exactly the opposite - I was desperate to show off DS, I would have stood on a street corner holding him aloft or put his picture on a billboard on the M25 if DH had let me. I remember walking through the hospital with DH carrying him in the car seat and being amazed that people were just walking past and not stopping to notice that the world's most incredible baby had just been born. Tbh he's two now and a little bit of me is still astonished when people don't comment on how cute and clever he is...

I did experience the utter irrational panic of people passing my DC around for cuddles especially when they were crying. I always felt like I was on the verge of screaming at relatives when visiting.

I’m not sure if this is the same kind of thing, but as a newborn when my Dd was all wrapped up like a little burrito in my arms, I’d often look down at her, with her little eyes looking up at me. The strongest feeling would come over me like I’d met her before, like I knew her? It was overwhelming, my dp had the same. This was very early on..nowadays I have times when I just can’t stop cuddling her, almost like I can’t get close enough to her.

This is a fascinating thread.
Sadly I can’t have children and I feel that I have missed a very base aspect of what it is to be a woman.

I still use the inside of my wrist to test the whole family's temperature if they feel unwell, and my dc's are adults now.

Not so easy to test yourself doing that though!

Dd 2 was furry when she was born and the first thing I noticed were her little hairy shoulders, her fuzzy forehead lasted for months and I used to spend ages running my lips on it.

She's 5 now and much less hairy but still has a lovely furry back that I love to stroke and reminisce about her babyhood.

I can smell a temperature-they actually smell of burning to me. Only my own dc.

My boys are 23 and 22 and I still nuzzle and smell them

Not the smell thing, but I remember being at a wildlife park somewhere in Cumbria when DS1 was about 5 months. One of the wandering ostrich things tried to take a closer look at him and I found myself actually growling at it. Made it go away though!