Last night was another sleepless night with Samantha. She really hates being placed in her cradle at night, and cries (screams, really, until she's red in the face and cannot breathe) within minutes of being laid down, even if she was fast asleep to begin with. But she's more than happy to sleep next to, on top of, or between me and Amy in bed at night -- her face gets this angelic look to it, and she goes right to sleep in apparant bliss. She's also happy enough to sleep in the cradle during the daytime. Go figure. So we just let her sleep on Amy's chest most of the night last night, and she slept for as much as 2 or 3 hours at a time between feedings, which is pretty normal for a one month old.

I'm not sure we want to do this every night, and the day will come when she has to move to the nursery and sleep in her crib, but last night we just had to get some sleep, and that seemed like the most pragmatic solution. Ella was also sleeping on the bed last night, but more or less ignored Samantha. I think she's decided Sam's here to stay and just not all that interesting yet. I expect all that will change as soon as Sam begins to crawl.

While we were up at midnight with her I started rereading "The First Three Years", an outstanding book on child development during the first three years. The author remarked that babies less than 2 or 3 months old don't have much head control, with one exception. When they're angry they show much more control over their heads, and they can propel themselves surprising distances by pushing along with their legs. I guess that means we have a frequently angry child, since Sam does both of these things regularly.

Amy and I gave her a bath today, which she sort of needed. (I promise, there will be no talk of baby poop in this weblog.) She fussed a bit but tolerated it better than I'd expected. At one point she managed to find her mouth with her hand and started sucking her thumb. It's the first time I've seen her do this, though Amy says she's done it before.

I'm just blown away by how quickly she's changing -- she's visibly bigger and heavier than she was just two weeks ago, and shows new behavior every day. Her wakeful and alert periods are getting longer and more frequent, and she spends long minutes just staring into your eyes. I know newborns aren't really capable of much in the way of thought, but it's hard to look into those eyes and not wonder what's going on in there.