7 weeks

Here's what is going on with Noah this week, according to babycenter.com;

Reaching out: Your baby's hands should be mostly open now — ready to reach out to the world. In the early days of your baby's life, grabbing was mostly automatic and instinctual and she couldn't let go if she wanted to. Although she can't really grab objects just yet, she can hold things placed in her hands. And, once she wraps her hands around something, she might not let go so easily. She'll also begin to try and bat at objects, so keep potentially dangerous objects far from your little one's reach. This means not holding hot liquids or sharp objects while you're holding her.

Learning begins now: You may notice short periods of time when your newborn is quiet and alert. This is prime time for learning: Your baby's brain will grow about 5 centimeters during her first three months! Use these calm intervals to get better acquainted with your baby — talk to her, sing to her, describe the pictures on the walls. She may not be able to add to your conversation just yet, but she's learning nonetheless. New textures for her hands to feel and new sights and sounds (all in moderation) are all learning opportunities. Even bath time becomes a laboratory for understanding life.

Eyes can track objects: With both eyes now able to follow things consistently and well, your baby can track a moving object much better, something she may have been able to do for only brief periods since birth. The stores are packed with developmental toys, but you'll do just as well with everyday objects. Pass a rattle or a bright plastic ladle horizontally in front of her. Then try moving it up and down. This should attract your baby's attention, though she probably won't be able to smoothly follow things vertically for another three months and diagonally for another six months. You can also play eyes-to-eyes by moving very close to her face and slowly nodding your head from side to side. Often her eyes will lock onto yours.

Our little guy is now finally big enough for his BumGenius cloth diapers and has been wearing those exclusively since Sunday.  For some strange reason I love the process of washing the stuffing his diapers... maybe it's the soft cuddly material, maybe it's how cute he looks in them, and maybe it's that I know that these are much better for his little tooshy than all of the chemicals in disposables.  We could still possible use an extra 2-4 cloth diapers, but we are doing well with what we have, I just need to throw in a load of diapers to wash every morning when I wake up so that we have enough for the day.  With the first load I just crossed my fingers and threw it in in hopes that the diapers would come out clean.  Much to my delight they have come out looking and smelling clean ever single wash.

I still don't know if we've gotten a full smile out of Noah, but we get a whole lot of smirks and grins, especially right after he's done eating and he's content with a full belly.  It seems this week that Noah is starting to sleep longer at night.  In all prior weeks he went about 3-4 hours a time at night before waking up to eat or to dirty his diaper.  The last two nights in a row he has slept for over 6 hours at a time each night... I LOVE it, I feel much more refreshed by the time we are getting up for a middle of the night feeding, and then I've only had to get up once per night, as opposed to twice as I was doing before.  He's also started enjoying listening to the music on his crib mobile while watching the lights and the the hanging animals spin.  It has almost stopped and eliminated his 1-2 hours of fussiness each night around 10 pm when he is put in his crib.  We keep wondering if his eyes are going to stay the pretty shade of blue that they currently are, or if they are going to change.  Our little man is starting to visibly put some weight on and is getting just a little bit thicker each week.  For about 2 weeks he's been too long for newborn clothes and has been wearing 0-3 month clothes, he's growing so quickly in length that I don't think those will fit him for that much longer, but 3-6 month clothes are still huge on him width wise since he's just not a chunky guy (yet anyway).  He's also holding his head up on his own a good bit now.

Shannon