Something to smile about

 This past week was pretty fun for us as parents since we hit the first "milestone" for Aurora - social smiling. She is recognizing our faces and smiling with excitement at this. We were able to capture some of these moments on camera.

Hi Mom!!

Kicking and grinning, her favorite past-times

SO EXCITED to see my parents!

 Unfortunately, she seems to not only express the happy emotions more, but also the fussy not-so-happy ones. Apparently weeks 6-8 are the peak fussy times, and we are starting to experience this. While before she would be fussy and it was either one of three things (hungry, dirty diaper, or gassy), now it doesn't seem as easy to solve. Sleeping is not going as well as we would have hope either, but we are working on figuring that out. She doesn't seem to like sleeping on her back, while a reclined sitting position or on her belly (in our arms) is her preferred  position. Since the current thought about infants is that they should sleep on their backs and not bellies to help prevent SIDS, we aren't putting her to sleep on her belly yet. As soon as she can roll herself though, all bets are off!

The lack of sleep has brought Jes to a new level of 'sleep walking' and talking. One evening Brandon awoke to find Jes standing next to her side of the bed, rocking a pillow. When he asked what she was doing, she responded 'rocking the baby' which was not in her arms or on the pillow, but rather asleep in the crib. Another night, Jes woke herself up, standing again next to the bed looking for the baby. She realized that the baby was not there, but in the crib, but then asked where the other baby was and began looking for it. Brandon wasn't home this time to remind her that we only have one child, but she soon realized this and went back to sleep. This is on top of the times she's tapped Brandon awake, mumbling incoherently or telling him 'its time to go' or other phrases. All we can do is laugh about these situations and hope more sleep will come in the future. At least it will make for interesting stories when Aurora is older!

Even with all of this though, one look at the pictures above and we know it is all worth it. She's too adorable!