My little girl is growing up!

Jocelyn gets more comfortable with the world around her every day. She becomes less needy and more independent, which is both wonderful and heartbreaking at the same time. But today it is a very good thing.

Today I am in a bad place. My worst rational fear came true (I had lots of irrational fears as well, but thankfully none have come true yet) - I woke up to the onset of an allergic reaction and had to run for the Benadryl. I caught it early enough, so half a dose of liquid children's Benadryl was enough to do the trick. This made me VERY drowsy, and now I am a bit hung over from it. I don't have the energy to walk around with a baby in my arms. And, quite frankly, I don't have the coordination for it today, either. I don't trust myself. So I am glad, today, that in the past few days (seriously, the second she became 6 weeks old) she has been a bit more independent.

She's starting to be able to go longer between feedings at night, so I am getting a bit more sleep. She's still not quite on a schedule, but I'm sure she will settle into one eventually. She woke up to eat at one point, but didn't start crying. I heard some weird sucking, smacking noises coming from the nursery. I checked the video monitor to see her trying to suck her thumb. My baby was trying to soothe herself back down to sleep! She was getting frustrated with herself, sometimes she's not quite coordinated to suck her thumb successfully. But I was SO impressed! She was also chatting and cooing and making cute little noises. I eventually went to feed her, but she never did beg me for it. I just figured she was probably very hungry (and she was). My big girl!

Today she has been very independent. First of all, she slept in late for me (well, went back to sleep after I fed her at 7:30 or whatever time it was). Granted, she was up for like 3 hours in the middle of the night, so that helped. But it helped me sleep off some of the Benadryl.

Then she let me put her into her swing twice today (she usually hates the swing). The first was after her 11:00 meal, when I could tell she wanted to be walked around and I just didn't have the energy for it. She even slept in there for a while. When she woke up, she didn't beg to be taken out, but rather sat there staring at the mirror above her, wondering who the baby in the mirror was. I grabbed her as it close to her next meal time, but I honestly probably could have left her.

I put her back in after that meal, since she enjoyed it so much the first time. And again, she was amused by it. She stayed there for a while, and when she started crying and I went to get her, I discovered it was due to a diaper full of poop. Well, that's fair, I suppose.

Anyway, my daughter who used to only sleep in somebody's arms and who was only happy being held can now be amused without being held, multiple times a day, for good stretches of time.