Oh, week 6. Simultaneously adorable and exasperating.

Thanks to the Wonder Weeks app, I knew that he’d likely be experiencing a developmental leap sometime around this time. And it’s a big one: infants’ vision and cognition improves dramatically during this leap.

It was if overnight Hudson went from an adorable little bundle that we loved without much reciprocity to a person that could see and recognize us. We hit some major milestones this week: he started smiling at us on purpose, engaging with toys and tracking objects (especially mama!) with his eyes. I’ve had some great experiences in my life, but I’m pretty sure none of them compare to him looking at me while his face slowly lights up with a huge smile. I’m crying just typing that sentence and picturing it!

We’ve also spent hours watching a brightly colored musical mobile slowly turn this week — so many smiles and coos. And he’s very into his swing, which he’d previously been pretty uninterested in. He’ll sit in there and swing away, looking at the hanging toys and at the world around him.

It’s obvious that all of a sudden he’s seeing and taking in SO much more than he was before, and it’s blowing his little baby mind.

So yes, adorable and also incredible to watch him grow and change so quickly. (And I still keep looking at him and thinking, “how did we MAKE that?!”)

The flip side of all of this life-changing cuteness was that it was honestly just a tough week — understandably, it seemed like he was trying to process so much that any sense of normalcy just went out the window.

Eating became an hour-long project every time in an attempt to get 10-15 minutes of focused feeding out of him. He’d stare at the ceiling grunting, coo at me, and flail around looking at the lights and kick his legs over and over in excitement. Funny and sweet, but tiring. I thought there was something wrong with my supply after a full day of lame eats on Monday until the same behavior came out for his nightly Dad bottle.

Any predictability in our previously-predictable nap schedule went completely out the window. This was partly due to him being hungry from not eating as much as he usually does, and partly, I think, because waking up and seeing the world was just too amazing to go back to sleep! Until he got overstimulated and cried. Poor guy. Lots of skipped naps, short naps, and multiple-wake-ups during each nap that we could get in there.

Babies also start producing tears right around now, and Hudson’s not usually much of a crier, so seeing him overtired and crying big crocodile tears was totally heartbreaking!

Thankfully, night sleep was totally unaffected — I credit this to the fact that it was dark and there wasn’t anything to distract him from eating and sleeping.

But, it’s Friday and we all made it. His eating seems to be back to normal and in fact seems to be more focused and efficient than ever. Baby roll production back on track 😃 Getting back on the nap track seems a little farther off, but his dad has the “hot hand” with naps… bless the weekends.

I can’t decide if I’m happy or sad to see this week on the books. Maybe both. In my mom’s group this week, a woman shared something that really stuck with me. She said that with babies, moments that you want to hold on to go by quickly, and when you want something to pass quickly, time seems to crawl by… but the one thing you’re guaranteed is that everything will change at some point. Maybe obvious, but it helped me maintain perspective this week and appreciate these moments, aching back and all. I’ll never get another first smile, and he’ll be back to napping soon enough.

Can’t wait to see what week 7 brings us!