6 Weeks

It's hard to believe Miss M. is six weeks old. It seems like just yesterday we were walking out of the hospital. It seems like just yesterday I was freaking out that I was going to be home alone with a week old baby when T. returned to work. It's amazing how scary it is at first, and how quickly it settles into a comfortable rhythm.

At six weeks, Miss M. is increasingly aware of her surroundings. She is awake more and more during the day. She has active periods where she kicks vigorously and moves her arms, and babbles away. During these active times, I try to put her in her bouncy seat, which plays music, lights up, and has a little mini aquarium thing that blows bubbles and has fish and starfish that move. She is enchanted by it during these times. If I don't put her in the bouncy seat, I put her under the Gy.mini, and rattle around the various little toys that hang from it. She has hit one of the musical toys with her hand, and seems startled that she can make it make noise.

Her eyes are also finally starting to turn colors. They were originally a very dark, muddy brownish color. It was hard to see the irises, because the rest of her eyes were so dark. Her eyes are slowly lightening to blue.

Miss M is also settling into a sleep routine at night. Most nights, she will sleep 4-5 hours initially, and then wakes about every two after that, needing to eat. She eats for only about 10 minutes during her nighttime feedings, which I think is why she only sleeps for about 2 hours. But, getting her to eat more means waking her up (she doesn't really waken to eat at night, but rather fusses with her eyes closed). Waking her up means that she's awake for a very long time, so I try not to do that. I'd rather get up more frequently for short feedings.

Her head control is getting better as her neck muscles gain strength. She often pulls away as I hold her up to my shoulder, so she can look around her. She also pulls away to stare at things while I'm trying to feed her. She isn't as good about picking her head up while she's on her belly, and doesn't really like to be on her belly. We have to work on tummy time some more, particularly given that she doesn't like it.

One of the best developments is her smile. She is starting to smile more and more. Particularly in the morning, she will have these lovely little periods where she smiles repeatedly, and occasionally giggles. It is something that I just adore. I love to hear her giggle, although she doesn't do it very often yet. She started smiling in her sleep before she started actively smiling at me, and now she has started to giggle in her sleep, which hopefully means she'll start giggling more. It's just priceless to see those big grins and hear her laughing.

In honor of her six weeks out, we had our first big adventure with her this weekend. We went into the city for the day with her. We went to a museum to catch and exhibit that T. and I had wanted to see, shopped a bit in a big mall that has much better stores than our local mall, and then had dinner out. It was our first meal out with her, and it was a success. We picked a large, loud place that we love, and it was perfect. The place was so loud that when she started crying during dinner, you wouldn't have been able to hear her at the next table. She didn't seem to mind the noise. In fact, she was fantastic all day. She loves being in the car and loves being in the stroller (as long as you keep driving/pushing and don't stop). She slept almost the entire day. One quirk is that she'll start crying when you stop driving/pushing. Not such a big deal with the stroller, because you can just move it back and forth if you stop walking. But in the car, there's no solution. It's kind of humorous to listen to her start and stop crying if you hit a series of traffic lights.

We're still having some crying spells, particularly at the end of the day, but we have been able to settle her down lately. She is just magnificent, and I feel blessed every day to have her in my life. It's amazing to think of how much our world has changed in just a year.