I’ve heard so many parents say things like “once I figured out my baby’s pattern, then it changed." I feel curious about this statement and find myself instead looking at my child’s development as a continual progression, a constant organic unfolding.
My baby is not a mathematical equation to solve. There isn’t anything for me to figure out, other than to be present to what she needs now. It maybe different from the day before, but I too am ever-shifting.
I find myself approaching her rhythms as just that, something that fluidly shifts and unfolds. Like the cycles of the seasons, nothing is fixed. Sometimes we have snow in Colorado late into spring creating freeze on the fresh buds and other springs more rain, offering more water to the early flowers.
"My baby is not a mathematical equation to solve. There isn’t anything for me to figure out, other than to be present to what she needs now."
When I try to predict something based on past experiences, I’ve taken myself out of present time. I’m in a place where I get stuck on how it was or how it’s supposed to be. Is there ever a “supposed to be” in nature? It’s so and so date, it’s supposed to be sunny right now. Ha! Humans are creatures of the Earth too, part of the natural unfolding and timing of all.
I’m feeling my way with my daughter’s system. She’s leading me as she reveals her signs of hunger, tiredness, peeing, pooping, wanting to cuddle, needing to move her body, or connect through our eyes and facial expressions. I’m responding to this ever evolving love being. She’s not a machine or a device that works like clockwork, she is intelligence revealing herself to me, moment to moment.
"She’s not a machine or a device that works like clockwork, she is intelligence revealing herself to me, moment to moment."
And if I get in my head about how she was yesterday, I’ve lost this precious moment to tune into her now, and now, now. Her needs are so clear, when I’m paying attention.
And of course I get distracted, I’m human too. Just like the weather and the ocean and the planets, I’m in constant motion, while simultaneously resting as pure changeless presence itself.
Thank you @melrosecreates Melanie Rose Prince for capturing this moment