morning smiles

Here we are at nearly 8 weeks and Laurel has changed so much already!
She smiles and coos at us all the time. Very much so in the morning, ready to start the day! Her coos and noises are almost communication and we can start to feel like we can relate to one another.
She's also growing very quickly. I am looking forward to her dr. appt. next week to get the latest weight and length. She's starting to fill out and is getting the rolls where the rolls should be:).
We've also conquered the night routine. She's going to sleep earlier than we'd like, Alex has no evening time with her. But for now, we have to go by her inner schedule. That has her getting cranky around 6 and really tired by 6:30. So at 6:30 we have our bedtime nursing, then a swaddle, pacifier, a bit of rocking and she's out! The first couple of nights, we had to go in repeatedly to shoosh her or even pick her up and comfort her. But last night, we went in only once and it was to put the pacifier back in her mouth. We love our time with her, but it's been nice to have a little down time for just Alex and me in the evening.
She's been sleeping very well at night and sleeps until around 9. We are still doing two night feedings, plus waking her for a small one before I go to bed. Sometimes she's so sleepy, her nursing session is very short, so she wakes up a little sooner than I'd like. Last night, I waited to see her awake on her own, to see what cue she gives in her sleep. When she is hungry, she starts to squirm and eventually munches down aggressively on her fist. That was good to see because now I can decide if she's hungry and I really need to get myself out of bed during the night or if she's just working on something else:).
Next up will be the nap schedule. I fear that's no where close to regular now. She doesn't sleep for the 2 hour stretches I'd like, but more like 45 min. to an hour. And I think the daylight distracts her, so she's much more difficult to put down in her crib. But we will give it a good effort and hope it goes the way of bed time!