Well, just recently I was watching home videos of my little girl. I am baby crazy right at the moment. DD is just so grown up now. I miss my baby. So, I can comment with some authority here.
As soon as DD came out she went from the nurses to daddy. I was out of it. I have a video of DH holding her and she just stared into DH's eyes. The poor thing had that gunk in her eyes, but she refused to close her eyes or look away.
I have a video from DD's birthday where she is lying in her isolette with her eyes WIDE open, rooting. She pulled the blanket into her mouth and chewed on it. Eyes wide open.
I have a video of my step-mom holding her when she was still in the hospital. She was very awkwardly holding her over her shoulder. DD literally propped her arms up on her shoulder and lifted her head all the way up. She was completely supporting her head. There was not even the slightest bob. She held it there for a good 30 seconds, looking at me.
(I am still quite confused on how floppy babies' heads are supposed to be.)
In the video of my sister holding DD for the first time, DD followed the camera 180 degrees, turning her head as far as she could each way.
I also have a video of her looking up at me while I am stroking her head and she smiles this huge grin. She was less than a week old. I did not count it as a smile because I was touching her, but still remarkable. She started really smiling by 3 weeks. Tons of videos of that.
A couple months after DD was born, my step brother's wife had a baby girl too. My whole family was making comparisons, bla bla bla. They came to the conclusion that because my neice was born via C-section she was not as alert. Huh?
There are no other babies in our families, but I have always been shocked by the sleepyness of other babies I see.
From about 4 months on (When DD could sit independantly) she looked like she was following conversations. She looked at who was talking, to the next person, and so on...
