12 Signs your baby loves you

You probably tell your baby a hundred times a day that you love them and kiss and cuddle them, but your baby can’t obviously return the love…yet. But there are ways your baby shows you they love you, take a look.

1. Looking you in the eye
When your baby gazes into your eyes when they’re in your arms, it’s baby's way of expressing they’re attracted to you, and want to get to know you even better.

Babies will try to copy your facial expressions, test it out by sticking out your tongue when baby is gazing at you, they may well copy.

2. Turning to you
Even before they’re born, your voice is a soothing sound for your little one, and when they turn to face you it is them moving towards a sound they love.

3. Smiles
Babies can’t smile before about 6 weeks but once they can that beaming smile that melts your heart is also their way of expressing the love they have for you. When you smile at baby, and baby smiles back, you’re cementing your relationship with each other.

4. ‘Talking’ to you
Around the age of 2 months, your baby will be trying to chat with you. They’ll be cooing and attempting to mimic sounds they hear from you. They want to communicate with you the way you are to them, and cooing and noises are the way they can do it.
 
5. Baby lights up when you come in the room
Once your little one reaches about 6 months, they will be able to recognise you and even when they’re in the arms of others, if you enter the room, the sound of your voice or the sight of you will have them wriggling to get to you, and their face will light up when they return to your arms.

6. Separation anxiety
Separation anxiety can rear its head around 9 months and one year, many babies will cry when they’re dropped off with anyone other than mum. As heart-breaking as it is to hear, your baby crying for you is a clear sign of how much they love you. 
 
7. Checking in
Once your baby is able to move independently they will be off exploring the world around them, but you may also notice they pop back to you every now and then, this is a sign they love you and as much fun as they’re having, they want to be sure you’re still around.
  
8. Mimicking facial expressions
Watching your facial expressions is how your baby learns how to do it. If you show your baby different expressions close up, you’ll start to notice they copy you. If you smile all the time, you’ll probably have a very smiley baby, they want to be like you as they love you, so they’ll try to copy you when you smile and copy your gestures of love.

9. Slobbering (kissing) you
As they like to copy you so much, your baby will try and copy your kisses to show how much they love you, it will be quite a while before they perfect the art of kissing so you may find it is more an open mouth over your nose or a suck of your cheek leaving a little slobber in its wake! But it’s still their way of showing you they love you.

10. Only you’ll do for comfort
The moment your baby feels scared, stressed, or hurt, or a noise is too loud, and they seek you out for comfort, this is a clear sign of love. They are confident in the fact that you love them, take care of them, and comfort them when life gets a little scary. 

11. Crying when you leave the room
Crying can definitely be a sign of love. As long as it’s not when you arrive to pick them up but when you leave the room, then the cry lets you know that they love you and want you around. When you leave the room, it feels to them that you are taking away their comfort blanket, which is you.
 
12. Using you as a human shield
Your baby is confident that they love and trust you, but they are naturally more wary of others. When they find themselves in a situation that they are unsure of they will look to you for reassurance and cling to you. It’s a sign they love you and feel the safest with you.