Emma: 5 Months

Oh Squishy,

You are just so squishy that I can't help but call you that all the time!  You are sleeping now and I miss your little squishy face.  You are such a sweet little girl, so laid back and smiley.  Every time I get you out of your crib you give me the biggest smile...every single time!  Love that!!  You have also started the cutest thing - touching my face when I am holding you.  You reach up and put your little hand on my cheek with the biggest smile on your face.  It's like you are trying to tell me how much you love me.  Baby girl, you sure do know the way to melt my heart. 

You generally go down for naps and bedtime very easily now (with just 2-3 paci reinsertions) and with rarely any crying.  I often look on the video monitor a few minutes before the end of a nap and find that you are already awake, just rolling around (silently).  You truly are such a chill baby!  I LOVE this age!  If we could only get you to stop waking those 4-5 times through the night for a paci reinsertion. :-)

You are rolling all over the place these days and moving all across the room just by rolling.  You are very content with rolling and don't really have much of a desire to sit up yet.  You can sit up with the boppy behind you for support but you quickly fold forward, reaching for something in front of you and then end up on your belly, rolling around again. :-)

This was a big month in your life.  You had your first taste of table food this month.  We started with rice cereal on October 27 and you LOVED it!  We then introduced avocado, which you were not a huge fan of.  We tried it for a few days but you continued to spit it out, so we stopped and moved on to sweet potatoes.  You loved those!  Unfortunately you started pooping a lot less so I was worried about you getting constipated (like your sister did when she was this age) so I backed off the solids completely by the end of the month.  We will start again soon with oatmeal cereal instead of the rice, as I think that is probably what is causing the problem.  We also gave you a sippy cup of water for the first time this month.  You only tried that a few times and were mostly just using it as a chew toy, but when a little water would get in your mouth, you seemed to like it.

Not only was this month filled with fun firsts, but it was also filled with some drama.  The first mishap was Halloween night.  We went trick-or-treating with some good friends and you were a champ most of the night, but by the last hour or so you were starting to get pretty fussy (for you).  Since you rarely get upset, it is always surprising when you start getting fussy.  I just chalked it up to you being overtired from being out past your normal bedtime.  I put you to bed as soon as we came home and you fell asleep without any trouble.  But at 10:30pm everything went down hill.  You were wide awake and fussy.  Feedings, rocking, singing, gas drops, or the paci didn't put you back to sleep and I was at a complete loss as to what was going on.  You never were hysterical, just wide awake and agitated.  You were awake until 5am when you finally nodded off.  It was our worst night yet.  Not fun!  The next day you were still fairly agitated and not sleeping well.  When I was changing you out of your pajamas, I took off your socks and discovered the cause of all the fussing....there was a hair wrapped tightly around 3 of your tiny toes on your right foot.  Your toes were starting to turn purple and the hair was cutting into your skin.  I felt so bad and cried hysterically for a full 30 minutes, repeatedly telling you how sorry I was!  I was so scared for your little toes and probably would have taken you to the doctor if my parents (MeMaw and PaPaw) hadn't been here to assure me that you were okay.  I just felt so bad for being frustrated with you the night before for not sleeping and was upset with myself for not finding the hair sooner!  Since that incident I have been checking your toes and fingers very often!

The other drama of the month was your first trip to the ER and admittance to the hospital on November 14.  YIKES!  It is such a long story, but I will try to just give the highlights.  Daddy was out of town for a business trip so I was on my own with you and your sister.  All day you had sounded congested with rattly breathing, but were eating well and happy, with no fever.  So I decided to not take you into the doctor's office, for fear of wasting everyone's time.  I put you to bed and everything was fine until you woke up at 11pm, struggling to breath.  I held you for an hour trying to get you back to sleep.  I took you into the bathroom with hot water on in the shower (steam) to try to clear your congestion....that didn't work.  Then I tried cool air instead...nope.  Tried the humidifier (which had been running in your room all night already)...nope.  I was out of options and could see your little chest sinking in further with every breath.  I knew you weren't doing well.  I ended up calling a friend to come to the house and stay with Hannah while I took you to the ER.  After a breathing treatment and an oral steroid (and a Tylenol suppository for your 102 fever), the doctor was still not seeing enough progress, so they admitted us for overnight observation.  You were diagnosed with croup which really is not a big deal, but since you are still so little they were being extra cautious.  I held you in my arms the entire night and the following day because anytime I tried to lay you down, you were a mess.  I didn't mind all the extra snuggles though.  I stayed up all night and day (38 hours in total) just to be sure you were okay.  Overall it was probably an unnecessary trip to the ER, but when it comes to you and your sister, I will always air on the side of caution.

We finished out this crazy month with a trip to MeMaw and PaPaw's house in Florida.  It was your first trip to their house and your longest car ride yet (7.5 hours).  You did great!  You slept most of the way down and back and only had one minor meltdown when we were just 5 minutes away from MeMaw and PaPaw's house on the way down.  The highlight of the trip was your first Thanksgiving, when you met two of your great-grandmas...Maga (Great-Grandma Hunsinger) and Great-Grandma Schaefer.

Our schedule this month started stretching out a little bit, with 60-90 minute wake times.  You were eating every 3-3.5 hours and napping for 1.5-2 hours after the first three feedings of the day.  We completely dropped the 4th nap and you are awake from around 4pm until bedtime at 7pm.  For the majority of the month you were nursing 1-2 times in the middle of the night, but by the end of the month you had a couple nights where I was able to hold you off until your first morning feeding...so 11-12 hours with no feedings!  YEAH!  Hopefully this trend will continue.  You continue to be a speed eater, averaging just 5 minutes per feeding (one side only) and 30-40 minutes total for the day. 

5 Month Stats
- Diapers: Size 3
- Clothes: 6 & 9 months
- Shoes: Size 1 or 2
- Weight: 16 lbs. 5 oz.
- Height: 26"

Squishy, I sure do love you!  I love your laid back personality and the joy you exude to everyone around you.  I love that you are in no hurry to learn more skills because neither am I.  I want you to be my little baby forever!  Promise?  You are such a bright light in our lives and we love you more than you will ever know!