Homebody Baby

She's a funny little chicky, this baby. Unlike either of the other two in so many ways (of course) but very perculiar about the level of stimulation she can handle. Jenna didn't like lots of bright lights and electronic noise. Morgan didn't mind where we were and slept through anything in her little wrap cocoon. But Rowan? She prefers to be at home. Out of the sling. On the sofa. Skin to skin.

She won't stay in the sling when she's awake - she gets quite frustrated with that. But even when we're only out in the natural surroundings of a field or by the lake, she gets tired very fast and wants to retreat. You can see desire warring with fear on her face. Tired, overwhelmed, INTERESTED, want to move, need to be still, want to be OUT, can't handle the surroundings. She is only ever really at rest in the living room or the family bed.

It isn't that she is very fractious while we're out. She loves other people and is very sociable at this stage, asks to go to other people to get the view from their arms and cries if I don't pass her over! I'm one of the few people who can see this wanting-to-be-in-hiding-and-out-at-the-same-time conflict.

We all notice later. After Jenna's birthday weekend, visitors on Saturday and then out on Sunday, she was exhausted. In the end I had to swaddle her and sing in her ear in an otherwise silent room before she could feed to sleep. It wouldn't normally occur to me to swaddle her but it was so obviously overstimulation and every time she was nearly calm her little arms would flap and startle her fully awake again!I guess there's always a lot going on in her world even if we're calm and quiet at home though. I love this figuring out of another person, the noticing and adjusting to what they need and who they are in the here and now. Perhaps this is only a need of hers for a season, or perhaps it's a lifelong character trait that we have spotted here. Either way, I love to know that I know her.