8 Weeks Old

I can't believe Shelby turned 8 weeks old this week. Where has the time gone? She gets more and more enjoyable every day and I am so sad that I only have a little over a month left with her before my maternity leave ends. I love spending the days with her! Here are some recent milestones:

• Sleep!!! Before I was pregnant, I had no idea baby sleep was such an important thing. It's almost as important as feeding! Shelby has recently started sleeping GREAT at night and I hope she keeps it up. Last night was her best night ever - she slept from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. and we have not "trained" her or used any sort of "cry it out" methods. We just do the exact same thing at the exact same time every day: dim lights, feeding, Beatles lullaby music, swaddle and rock for 5-10 minutes. It seems to be working and she goes a little bit longer each week as her stomach gets bigger and can hold more food. Her daytime sleep is a little more disorganized - she seems to have sleepy days and awake days.
• Holding her head up. Shelby's neck muscles are getting stronger every day! Tummy time doesn't last for very long, but she loves to hold her head up when we hold her over our shoulder or on our chest.
• Smiles! Scott is able to coax great smiles out of Shelby and we think she has even started to laugh some, too! We can tell she is becoming more aware of her surroundings and can respond to faces and voices.
• Introducing a bottle. OK, this is not going so great, but we will keep at it and keep trying a little bit every day.
• Soothing methods. We discovered a new super soothing hold (thanks Glee!) We call it "monkey on a branch" and we sort of hold her tummy and head with her legs and arms dangling down. She loves it and even fell asleep like that today when I was holding her.