She's a real person!

It's like Lia suddenly became a real person overnight!  She went from this unresponsive, hungry little tyrant to a tiny little person.  Yesterday she just did not want to be put in the sling, which is unusual because it usually settles her down.  I finally got her quiet by holding her so she was facing out - she just wanted to look around.  Then we laid down on the bed and she stared at the fan for awhile (her favorite) and then she just stared at me and the stuff around her and wiggled her arms and legs all around.  It was like I could see her soaking up her environment and starting to discover that her hands are hers.  

Today was even better.  She had a long period of that with me, twenty minutes or so, and then another one with Robert.  I got out her activity mat - courtesy of her great-grandparents - and Robert tried that out with her.  It's amazing, she was fascinated by it.  She's never been that interested in anything so far!

Her sleep is getting better.  She isn't really sleeping long stretches at night, but she's going down pretty reliably in the late evening and typically sleeping for three four-hour stretches in a row.  It's still rough on me because I'm usually up for two hours in the middle of the night, between feeding, diaper changes, and pumping.  I also eliminated all caffeine a few days ago, afraid that it was keeping her up, so I'm exhausted.  Thankfully it's Friday and R is around to help out this weekend!

She's also been sleeping in her crib.  She's totally cool with it, I'm the one with the problem!  I'm still a little freaked out to have her so far away (relatively) but I'm getting better.  As much as I love having her sleep in our bed with us, if she's okay with sleeping in her crib, it seems to be the better long-term plan.  We can always move her back to our bed later if we want but it'd be much harder to try to move her to a crib in a few months.

In other news - Robert finished his MBA this week!  He graduates next Friday, but his classes are over.  I'm really proud of him.  It was a lot of extra work for a degree that's surely going to be helpful, but not necessarily translate to a new job or higher salary right away.  So he didn't have to go back to school, but he did.  I'm so impressed that he tackled it like he did.  He really kicked some ass in his classes, particularly since he was working full-time.  :)  Lia's got a lot to look up to!  Congrats, Bobby!