Five Months

This has been rather a back-and-forth month for you, little fella. While you continue to be a sweet little punkin, you also have had your moments of screaming-angry-baby. Your sleep schedule especially has me scratching my head at its inconsistency. Most nights you will wake up at least once, but sometimes many times more. Often you still want to eat twice in the night. You don't seem to understand that you are not a newborn anymore and you should be sleeping longer. Then you will surprise me with a ten-hour stretch and I will be the one who wakes up first! 

 

The frustrating part of it is, I just can't let you cry it out. I don't think that works for you. Sometimes you will only wail for a few minutes, but if it goes longer than five it will go for an hour. You just can't settle down once you've gotten wound up. It worked great for your sister and she never cried longer than 20 minutes or so, but you, dear sir, can scream until dawn. And that is the worst of it. You can Scream. The angels have to cover their ears when you get angry. I'm pretty sure that if there is a baby language, you are using four-letter words. 

You do so love your big sissy. When she starts dancing around and playing, you just love to watch the action. The feeling is generally mutual. She loves to give you the sweetest hugs and kisses and helps to find your paci or hold your hands during a diaper change. I'll be sure to remind you both of this information when you're fighting teens. 

You have the biggest blue eyes and sweetest little baby face. Though it is true that you look remarkably like your sister, you are still all boy and very much just yourself. You love going for walks and are usually content to sit in your stroller and just watch the world go by. Even when we are parked for an extended time, you love to just chill. 

You are so close to sitting well on your own. Last week you got to be a part of a diaper photo shoot and were doing great sitting up like a big boy, but toppled over pretty quickly anyway. That noggin of yours is just so heavy! You love moving through your different play areas. Time on the floor mat, in the saucer standing up, sitting with the pillow behind you and as always, swinging in your swing.  When you are being held, you love to hold hands and are very touchy feel-y, cuddling into a soft blanket or your little frog. 

I have found the best way to make you giggle is loud, nuzzly cheek kisses and belly-rib tickles -- you just love it! You have a pretty loud chuckle and the sweetest gummy laughs. Randi can make you laugh with several of her silly noises. For some reason, ssssss, makes you break into laughter every time!

Since you were having such a hard time sleeping well through the night, I decided to start you on solids a little early. Your doctor said that generally it is best to wait until babies are six months since they are seeing overweight babies more frequently but that she wasn't worried about that being an issue with you. Your dad and I make skinny babies, what can we say?! Anyway, you weren't sure what you thought about that first bowl of rice cereal. I cooked up a yummy pot of jasmine rice and pureed it with baby milk to make it nice and thin. Surprisingly, you gobbled up a generous helping, though much of it ended up on your face. You have also tried some peach-oatmeal-apple goodness and I have mixed some sweet potatoes into your rice cereal a few times as well. However, I have not really made it a nightly habit to always be sure you get a "real" meal since it hasn't seemed to help you sleep longer. 

I really don't know what your deal is with sleeping, kiddo. Almost every evening, you wake up about an hour after going to bed and are only soothed by eating again. I can't seem to feed you enough! This month I even got on a prescription to make more milk for you, which worked great while I was taking it, but as soon as it was done, I stopped making enough. You are just a hungry little dude! So, we have introduced bottles at almost every feeding, plus a few extras at night.

The funny thing is, at your most recent doctor's appointment, she said you were only at 10% for weight. That was only shortly after I had started bottling you, so it will be interesting to see if you are huge by your next visit. You got a big ol' shot while we were there too, but let out nary a peep. Brave little guy. 

Let's see, what else about this month? Just the usual, I guess. Cute baby smiles, a moderate amount of pooping, a still excessive amount of screaming, fun rides in the stroller, good times with baby toys and lots of hugs and kisses. I just can't stop kissing you whenever I have you in my arms. You are just so darn yummy, my little son. 

Our lives are fuller (and yes, louder) because of you and we can't wait to see where you will take us next!