Hmmm, so if your MIL called your baby freaky and said she looks like an old person, could that be alertness? I confess, I've looked at other babies over the years and found them "unalert", which might mean by default that mine were. I've probably always read too much into that statement. I was an inexperienced parent, and my oldest really set the bar for what a typical baby did.
DS's eyes would follow your every move. It "freaked" us all out. He smiled, and I got "that's just gas"... but it wasn't. I swear! Either that or his gas had perfect timing!!! I never had to hold his head as a newborn. Ever. I always thought that was weird. It might've been reflexes, but I swear, he loved, at a week old, to "stand" on my legs. I have pictures of him holding his head up almost fully before he was 3 weeks old. And he rolled over from front to back at 4 weeks, back to front before 6 weeks. To me, that is both freaky and alert!
Of course, I didn't realize that it could be freaky or mean alert until DD was born 22 months later. She slept all the time, rarely focused on us. She was "floppy" (sorry Grinity - :)) She hated tummy time and didn't roll over until she was 4 months old. She doesn't by any means have "just" average intelligence, but she is definitely not showing signs of being AS gifted/bright as her big brother. Of course, she is the less intense/laid back child, so really maybe the alert/non alert infant just means what kind of personality the child will have.
