5 Months Old

My sweet little girl,

You are 5 months old today and what a 5 months its been!  So much has changed in the last 5 months.  Just today I saw a newborn baby while walking around Babies R Us (buying you a 5 month birthday toy) and I couldn't believe how big you were compared to that little newborn!  I won't be able to call you my little peanut for much longer (although I'm sure I will!). 

This month was filled with firsts!  You are such a little person now, with quite a personality.  You are VERY active and rarely sit still.  Trying to change your diaper or get you dressed is quite the task these days.  You are constantly wanting to roll over and scoot around.  I'm sure crawling is not far off....oh boy!  You have a very lively personality and you are definitely the "life of the party".  You love having everyone's attention and are so happy when someone is holding you or playing with you.  But being alone is another story.  You are a social butterfly! :-)

Here's what you're up to these days:

• We weighed and measured you at home today and you weigh 17 pounds and are 26 inches tall!!
• You can roll over both ways, but you are mostly working on back to front right now (thankfully you haven't been rolling in your crib much lately)
• You can sit up all by yourself for several minutes now...you rarely need me to catch you, but I still sit right next to you just in case!
• You LOVE to stand up while holding onto the couch.  We just tried that for the first time a couple days ago and you thought it was SOOOO fun!!  :-)
• You can scoot all around while lying on your back (and also your stomach, but you only do that in your crib...like the time I know I put you down facing one way and the next morning you were completely turned around).
• You love to "fly" on your tummy (you put your arms and legs up and just kick away)  I think you get frustrated though because you aren't actually going anywhere....soon enough my love!
• Your sleeping is still a bit off.  The last couple days have been better, but still not great.  You still have trouble after we put you to bed at 8pm.  You often wake up 30-45 minutes later, crying.  It has been hard to get you back to sleep at that point.  I used to feed you again, but have now decided that you really aren't hungry (you just ate at 7:30pm) so we have resorted to letting your cry it out for 10 minutes at a time....NOT fun!!!  I definitely shed a lot of tears myself. :-(
• Waking you up from a nap or in the morning is one of my favorite moments with you.  You are all smiles!!  I LOVE that you are waking up happy now....precious!
• You are eating several different things these days - applesauce (which you seem to like), peaches (still not sure about those), oatmeal cereal (you seem to like it), rice cereal (yum!), and today you tried avocado for the first time (you seemed to like that too!)  You are also getting really good at drinking water from a sippy cup.  I also let you practice taking sips from a 'real' cup and you do pretty well!
• Nursing is still going well, but you are getting REALLY quick (5-7 minutes per side) and you are very easily distracted when you eat.  
• You love bath time and you have so much fun kicking your feet and splashing water everywhere!
• You are so good with your hands!  You can transfer a toy from one hand to the other with no trouble and you reach for toys that you want and grab things so easily.  The other day at the grocery store, I gave you a green bean and you held onto it for a long time!  I finally had to take it away from you when you decided it would be fun to try to eat the green bean whole.  You also love to grab things you aren't supposed to...mommy's food, earrings, hair, dirty diapers....
• You love our doggie, Bubbles!  You love when she walks by and you try to reach out and grab her.  She's not a huge fan, but I think she will really start loving you when you are a little older and start feeding her scraps from the dinner table. :-)
• You LOVE getting undressed!  You smile and giggle and think it is just the most fun you have ever had! ;-)
• You are wearing size 3 diapers now!  Although you can still fit into size 2's, but they are getting snug!
• You are wearing almost all 3-6 month clothes (6 months in most stores).  But there are still a few 0-3 (3 month) things you can wear and that I squeeze you into! 
• You put everything in your mouth and love to blow raspberries!  Mommy loves when you do that....just not when you're eating! ;-)
• We still aren't sure if you are teething or not...lots of drool, chewing on your fingers and sucking on your bottom lip...but no redness of inflammed gums, so maybe not??  But if your sleep is this crazy before teething, I don't even want to think about what it's going to be like when those suckers start popping up!  UGH!
• You love to be carried on my hip.  You are such a big girl now and definitely don't like being held like a "baby"
• You schedule these days looks like this:
• 5 or 6am (I am hoping this gets later soon!) - You wake me up, I nurse you and change you and put you right back to bed
• 9 or 10am - You wake me up, I feed you (nursing and solids) and change you and then we play!
• 1:30pm - Feed you (nursing and solids), change you and then put you down for a nap (2-4 or 5pm)
• 5pm - Feed you (nursing and solids), change you and then we play some more!
• 7pm - Bedtime routine (bath every other night, pjs, diaper change, nurse, bible story, prayers) and you are in bed by 8pm
• The rest of the night is "unscheduled" and sometimes chaotic.  I try not to feed you again (although sometimes that's all that works) and we let you do some crying on and off until you fall asleep.  But there have been two nights in the last week or so that you actually slept through the night!!!  PROGRESS! :-)

It is such a joy to watch you grow and I am so thankful that I get to stay home with you everyday and witness all these changes.  Your Daddy and I love you more than words can say!