This is breastfeeding: The moment when we experience pure magic together ✨

We’ve partnered with our friends at Philips Avent to celebrate the surprises, beautiful moments, and special intuition that comes with being a mom. Get inspired (you can watch their sweet video here) and share your own powerful story about the instinctual moments when you’ve bonded with your baby. #mamalogues

My third baby is almost 8 months old and here I am—once again—wondering how exactly time flew by so fast… She’s crawling and sitting and eating solid foods now. She’s taking a bottle when I’m not around, loves to laugh at her big sisters, and just waved for the first time the other day.

These moments have been pure magic. I was literally clapping and cheering when she waved at me. I was somehow shocked (even though I have watched two of my other babies wave for the first time) and excited and in awe of this smart, tiny human who is beginning to do more and more on her own every single day.

But something she can’t do on her own, something she still needs me for—is breastfeeding. And I have to say, I think this is when we connect the most. When my daughter is nursing, I often feel the rush of a strong, overwhelming love for her. I don’t know if it’s the oxytocin or the honor I feel from being able to feed my baby from my body or what—but that bond is undeniably there.

Recently, she has started to smile at me during our breastfeeding sessions. It’s beyond. She will go from being super-focused on the task at hand, to slowly peeking up at me, her lips curling at the corners—mid suck. It makes my heart skip a beat. It makes me want to bottle up the feeling and keep it forever because I can’t bear the thought of ever losing it.

Because this smile is special, it’s private—something shared just between her and I.

It’s like we have a secret handshake, and I feel so lucky she’s taught me how to do it.

In this often busy and chaotic life, these small mommy/daughter moments of pure and absolute joy fill me up and keep me going.

There’s often so much going on in a day and, to be honest, it can be overwhelming at times. It’s hard to get everything done, hard to remember everything, hard to keep all the wheels turning. But when my daughter reaches for me and burrows her head in my chest, it’s her signal that tells me, “Mom I am hungry RIGHT NOW.” It’s her way of reminding me to slow down; to pause; to sit down and feed her. To soak up these moments.

And it’s a signal that only I know.

If we are out at the mall, or picking her sisters up from school, none of the other moms around me know that when she does this, she is signaling to me she wants to eat. To other moms, it may seem that she wants to cuddle or is tired, but since I am her mom—I know.

But even before she shows me she’s hungry with her signature burrow, she’ll give me “the look”—aka staring me down if someone else is holding her. Or now that she can crawl, crawling right up to me so that I pick her up and she can then do “the burrow.”

I know a lot of other mamas experience powerful bonding with their baby when bottle feeding—when the little one looks up and gives mom that same playful grin as they eat. There are also the mamas who feel this connection as they rock their baby to sleep, when they babywear, during bath time and also when they look into their baby’s eyes and sing them a song.

Whatever that special moment may be, I hope you celebrate it. I hope you stop to appreciate the magical bond you two share, that will always remain—even if they don’t fit in your baby carrier anymore and long after your breastfeeding journey has ended.

We’ve partnered with our friends at Philips Avent—the number 1 recommended brand by moms—to celebrate the surprises, beautiful moments, and special intuition that comes with being a mom. Get inspired by watching their heartwarming video created with SoulPancake and share your own stories about the special bond you’ve established with your baby. Tell us your favorite mom moment, using #mamalogues.

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