When you know...you know.

I have noticed that there is a certain instinct that comes with being a Mom. By no means am I an expert of any sort, but there is a little feeling that I get. Like what the infant is crying for (food, sleep, etc.), or that the silence of a toddler is not always a good sign, or when a baby has a simple cough or is really sick, or when the older child is not telling you the whole story, or when something bad has happened and they're not sure if they can/should tell you, and the list could go on. There are always certain signs too...lethargy and lack of appetite in a severely sick child, shoe polish on the wall after said silence, a lack of eye contact when "finished" with the aforementioned kind of story, or the look in their eyes of embarrassment and hurt and sadness.

I also experience this feeling when things just simply aren't as they should be. You know, like something is off, wrong, not as I left it. For example...

Exhibit A

When I come up the stairs to go to bed and see my door in this position, I get that feeling. That feeling that I will walk to the bedroom at the end of the hall and see this...

Exhibit B

The empty toddler bed that a certain three year old was tucked in to a matter of hours ago. And that feeling intensifies. I know that I will go back to that closed door, open it and find...

Exhibit C

That cute little boy snoozing in my bed!!

This is just a silly example that happens with my third-born fairly often but I have had some very real and very difficult experiences with this 'Motherly instinct'. I am sure to have countless more given that my children are young, but the one thing I have learned is to LISTEN to that instinct...it's almost ALWAYS right.