Missing your baby (when you're with them)

We've just spent a few days staying with family. This is Young Sir's third trip (both sets of grandparents live in another city) and though I'm a big fan of him having lots of time with his extended family there's a surprising side-effect of hanging out with the rellies: I find myself missing him.

This is in no way a passive-aggressive way of asking the wonderful family members to step back - we feel very lucky to have such a large and happy family around. But as we live out of town and only see everyone periodically it's inevitably pretty full on when we do visit, and while we look forward to visiting it's also now quite nice to get home and have our own family time. I'm surprised by this - not by enjoying being with only my two best boys, but by how much I miss my baby time when we're having quality time with the grandies.

I think part of it is that Young Sir behaves very differently alone with me than he does when others are around - the world is still a pretty big and bewildering place to him, and any additional activity in the room tends to fascinate and distract. And part of it is that I know my baby's signals and others don't, so I end up fighting internal battles - do I speak up and whisk him away for a much needed nap, or let him have another 10 minutes with these important people and risk a meltdown of epic proportions if we push him a bit too far?

Really it's a minor thing - occasionally dealing with an overtired baby is a very small price to pay for the wonderful family we have, and I'm hopeful that lots of trips to stay with grandparents, aunties, uncles and cousins will help Young Sir become a versatile boy who appreciates the value of relationships... But it still can be hard in the moment.

Have you experienced this bittersweet feeling?