the ways of the bear

the bear is rather consistent. 

1. she has always slept "well", meaning she doesn't fight sleep, does rest for a decent stretch of time and wakes up refreshed.  in the very early weeks, i had to check in with hubs and other friends again and again b/c i just not not used to a sleeping baby who was also an efficient nurser.  it was so different from e's pattern of needing to wake up and nurse more.  i do understand, of course that e's early birth and low weight contributed to her needing more frequent nursing sessions. but i did not realize until the bear was born what a difference it would make!
she has taken naps regularly.  she goes to be easily most nights.  there were a couple of seasons where she woke up in the middle of the night inconsolable.  hubs i were so confused by it. which leads to number two...

falling asleep quickly mid-snack

2. she sometimes is inconsolable and does NOT want to be touched or comforted.  when she was barely a year old, we taught her to say, "space" to let us know she didn't want to be touched or talked to but was okay.  it was her way to say she needed to figure it out & it helped us to know she wasn't in pain and to leave her be.

beginning to say, "space" and putting her hand out as in "stop, don't come any closer.".

Oh, my this was such a huge, hard lesson for me who worked my butt off to be an attachment parenting type of mama and who had a first child that was into being held plus easily consolable.  she still has times when she needs her space and i give it to her.  if you see her on the floor crying somewhere and me sitting by, no worries.  i really am doing what she wants me to do & not ignoring her.  and, trust me, nobody wants her to stop crying more than i do.  i really do not like to hear yelling or crying.

playing quietly all by herself one morning

3.  and 4. she likes to wake up early and play by herself for a bit.  she's been an early riser even though i tried to 'fix' that and get her to sleep in, as i prefer to do.  nope.  e bear still will sleep in but rarely, rarely ever would the bear.  if she had a long night of waking or late, late bedtime, she may sleep in a bit.  she is like her dada, a morning person.  anytime of day, she likes to play alone with sticks, wooden animals, beeswax, train sets, puzzles, books, dress up, coloring, playdough, little cups and bowls, etc...she is not picky about what she plays.  but she is totally fine to play for a solid 30-60 minutes by herself.  i was just looking back at pictures from this summer where i took one at 8am of her playing quietly on the floor and the last one was at 8:30am of her still playing on the floor all by herself while i had coffee and her sister slept.  she had moved through three different activities but she was content the whole time to just peacefully flow like that all on her own.  this isn't just a morning thing, either.  she is totally content to play quietly by herself for 45 minutes or so at a time.  it's just precious and heart-warming to me how happy she is doing this kind of thing.