Leah is 6 weeks old!

I can't believe she's already 6 weeks old. It's hard to explain, but I feel like she's been here for so long - and then I also feel like we brought her home from the hospital just yesterday.

Leah has been eating much more normally this week, but she's been harder to put to sleep than she had been. After most feedings it takes me around 45 minutes to get her back to sleep, and she still won't go down in the crib without being very sound asleep first. So even if she only eats every 4 hours, I only get about 2.5 hours of sleep in between - leaving me with a similar amount of sleep to when she was eating every 3 hours. But I'm doing fine overall. Glad it's a long weekend - Shafi gets baby duty tomorrow while I go for my 6 week post-partum checkup and to buy new nursing bras - yes, exciting stuff.

Leah is definitely getting more and more interactive, so she's becoming a lot more fun if more demanding. Yesterday I read her a few books, including some little books called "Black on White" and "White on Black." They have big silhouette type shapes on each page. Supposedly babies can see those well, while more complex pictures and colors are still too much. It was fun to flip through those and just talk about each page. And sometimes I'd sing something to go with the picture - like Rubber Ducky (from Sesame Street). I need to look that one up and see if there are more lyrics or if the chorus that I know is really the whole song. I also read her a book called Old McDonald and friends that has the words to the song and some farm animal stories - fables I guess, as they all have a moral. She fell asleep during that one - but I finished the book anyway.

And today I got out the activity gym - from the Fisher Price Rainforest Collection. It was an absolute blast to watch her. She looked up at the lights and the hanging toys and she definitely seemed to like listening to the jungle sounds. The sound stopped after 15 or 20 minutes and she fussed a little until I restarted it. I put her on her tummy...and she rolled over to her back! Big milestone - the first rollover. She couldn't go back to front yet, but I had read that comes later. Makes sense since she can use her arms - and the weight of her head - to push herself over from front to back. I took lots of great pictures. We played for about half an hour before she started to get tired and fussy - so then I put her in the sling and lulled her to sleep.

And another big accomplishment today - after we went for a walk around noon I put her in the car seat swing - and she's been in it sleeping for almost an hour! I kept her swaddled, so only the chest strap is on, not the strap that goes between her legs, but I decided she really can't move enough to get out of it yet - so should be fine. And maybe she just needed to be swaddled in order to sleep in it. I've also got it turned up to the highest setting - which I would have though would be too much swing - but when I had it lower she was stirring and I thought she was going to wake up, so I kept turning it up. I'm hopeful that she'll continue to like the swing and I can put it by the bathroom when I want to shower - and we can put it by the table when we want to eat dinner - basically use it for times when we really need her to stay down. It would definitely be nice to be able to make it through dinner without her crying and one of us having to go pick her up and eat the rest of the meal one-handed or take turns eating dinner.

Here are a few of the best pics of Leah in the activity gym - there are lots more on my Picasa site in the 2 month album.