It has been a big week of achievements for Amelynne. She has changed so much this week, from a tiny newborn that just sleeps and eats, to an interacting, strong, interested in everything, little baby.

She is definitely smiling! Lovely big happy smiles. She loves chatting and is joining in the conversations even more, with squeaks and aahs and oohs and smiles. She is also very good at sticking her tongue out and has been trying hard to copy my raspberries.

Her head control has also improved dramatically and she is now very confidently holding her head up all the time and looking around. Which can become a problem when she is meant to be going to sleep :). It is so wonderful to see though and she even followed Josh with her head when he walked out of the room! She is also getting very strong in the arms and is pushing off our chests and off the floor a little.

Kicking around on the change table with no nappy on is still her favourite activity, and combined with an excited conversation who could ask for more. Looking at everything (including a strange fascination with door frames, Josh thinks she will become an architect) and sleeping on our chests both come in as close seconds.

My new achievement for the week has been looking after Amelynne for a whole day and a half on my own for the first time. This has meant learning the best techniques for sneaking in helpful things such as a shower and meals when there is nobody else there to look after her while I do it.

Yay us! What will we learn in the next week!

Tomorrow Amelynne will be one month old! Wow in some ways we can’t believe that she is that old already, and sometimes it feels as though she has been with us for so much longer.

She is becoming more awake and interacting with us more each day. She is making more conversational noises which are just gorgeous and loves to stare at us and wave her arms around. We think that she gave us her first smile last night as it was the first time that she was really looking and interacting with me and then gave me a big grin with flailing arms. I think that we will have to wait for some repeat performances to see if it was the real thing. It’s very exciting though.

She has been feeding like a champ and is putting on weight nicely and last week weighed 3.365kg and had grown another centimetre, we will have to weigh her again next week and see how she is doing. Her other grand achievement was sleeping through from 11.30pm to 6am on Wednesday night! We were very grateful, and both had a good sleep.

We are all settling in together more and more, and I feel as though in the last week particularly we have been getting to know each other a lot better and understanding each other. I can’t believe how much I love her and how much time I can spend every day just looking at her and enjoying being with her.