Ellie at 7 weeks

Tim took this picture last week, and I'm hoping to use one of the photos from this set for our birth announcements. I have no idea when you're supposed to send out birth announcements (soon after the birth, I guess) but ours will probably go out around the time she hits 2 months. Why be conventional?

Ellie at 7 weeks is getting to be a lot of fun. She's more alert and engaged with the world every day, and it's amazing to me how she hits each milestone as if on cue. The books say she'll smile at us sometime around 5-6 weeks, and sure enough, those early fleeting sleep smiles (one book called them "butterfly smiles") have now been joined by full-on laughing smiles that she gives us when we make silly noises or talk to her. Her alert, contented times are still rather few and far between, but every day she does something new. This week she's noticing anything that is twirling or rocking in her field of vision. Yesterday we played with the toys dangling from her pack n play, and today she stared at the dining room chandelier for a good 15 minutes while I occasionally nudged it to keep it swinging. 15 minutes for me to eat my lunch!

And sleep, oh sleep! My baby girl is a good sleeper (KNOCK ON WOOD). She is pretty fussy in the evening but by 8 or 9:00 she gets very sleepy. We swaddle her, turn on her noise machine, put her in the swing and she usually drops right off. It is rather magical, and I count myself very lucky. She has a string of twinkle lights in her bedroom and she stares at those for a few minutes, then falls asleep. She's up once in the night for a feeding, usually around 3 am, then she's back out until Matt gets home around 7 or 7:30. I have now fully recovered from my sleep deficit and am one happy mama.

 I'm going to try to post weekly updates so I can remember these early weeks. I keep thinking of the phrase "the days are long but the years are short," which certainly describes the newborn months! It's hard to believe she's been with us for 7 weeks. It seems both very long and oh so short.