Craft: 5 Months Old

So, I am technically 5 days late on this post - sorry, baby boy.  We were in the mountains for our big 4th of July adventure and I just lost track of time.  Where have the past five months gone?  I don't even know.  Time is flying, and you are growing and changing so quickly.  I am not sure why, maybe it's because I have two babies now, but I feel like your "firsts" are coming so quickly and I am never ready.  Stop growing so fast!

Weight/Length:  We are all well aware by now that I have no idea.  I would guess that weight is somewhere between 19-20 lbs, and you seem longer to me because you are starting to look like you are thinning out, but I'm terrible at guessing so I won't go there.

Sleep:  This month we have been all over the place on sleeping - the only thing that has been consistent is an 8pm bedtime.  Just after Craft's four-month birthday (which also happened to correspond with my return to work), he decided that sleeping through the night was for losers.  At first he was up once or twice a night and was genuinely acting hungry, so I assumed it was a growth spurt and fed him when he cried.  This was a win/win because everyone was back to bed in 10 minutes or less - the doctor agreed with this decision at C's 4-month check-up and said that as long as he was actually hungry and eating when he woke up, that it was fine and just a phase.  I am not sure what changed but things got worse as the month progressed.  I kept waiting for the phase to end and it is seemingly neverending!  I think partially it is because we went on two trips this past month, and in an effort to not wake up the entire house during the middle of the night wake-ups I continued to just feed Craft if he woke up crying.  Somewhere along the way, I think that we must have created some bad habits!  This week, I have been letting C fuss a little if he wakes during the middle of the night instead of going in immediately to feed him.  If he gets to the point where he's too worked up and I know he won't calm down, I'll go ahead and feed him (which has only happened once this week), but other wise I let him fuss on and off until he puts himself back to sleep.  I am fired, but I think it might be paying off (hopefully I'm not speaking too soon by sharing that we have seen drastic improvement this week), so fingers crossed we're on our way back to "through the night."  If only I could baby minds, this process would be a lot easier.  :-) 

In terms of a "routine," Craft still doesn't really have one and I have been debating recently whether to try to force it (wake up at 8 and eat, 9 am solids, 10am nap, 12pm bottle, 1pm solids, 2pm nap, etc.) - he's just so good at going with the flow right now that I'm kind of afraid to mess with it.  Craft goes to bed at 8pm and 99% of the time has no problem putting himself to sleep (it's staying asleep that's the problem!).  He typically gets up for the day somewhere between 7:30 - 8:00 am.  He is still only awake for two hours at a time.  Naps are a little more consistent - his morning nap is normally only 45 minutes or 1 hour and his afternoon nap is typically at least 1.5 hours, a lot of times longer.  C also typically takes a 30-minute cat nap in the evening depending on how long the afternoon nap was.  We are still working on getting him to sleep through naps without waking up after sleep cycles, but we're getting there and he is improving by the day.  

I also should note that we transitioned Craft out of his sleep sack this month!  After the whole "breaking out of the swaddle" debacle, we decided to try the woombie upon recommendation of quite a few folks.  The woombie worked for about a week, until he started rolling over in it.  I just did not feel comfortable with him rolling over while trapped in that thing, so we decided to get rid of it.  I prepared for the worst and we went straight to the sleep sack, but it was actually very easy - much easier than transitioning Lilly out, in fact.  It really only took less than 10 minutes of crying one night and he was fine.  That, at least, was much easier than anticipated!

Feeding:  Craft nurses or has a bottle of breast milk every 4 hours during the day.  In fact, sometimes he tries to go longer than that but I force feed at 4 hours in an attempt to tank him up during and hopefully help at night in the process.  He also is currently getting one solid meal each day - at dinner - which typically consists of oatmeal mixed with breast milk and some sort of fruit or vegetable.  We've been making baby food at night this week, and as we introduce a bigger variety of foods I may add another meal (breakfast) over the next few weeks.  Here's what he's tried so far: avocado (not a fan); banana (loves); sweet potato (loves); butternut squash (he's had it several times this week and is still on the fence but has liked it better each day); oatmeal (likes).  Up next on the agenda: apples; peaches; p.e.a. (pea + apple + edamame); zucchini + apple + carrot.

Firsts This Month:  First trip to the mountains!  First bike ride.  First hike.  First solids.  First time sleeping in a sleep sack.  I'm sure I'm forgetting so many, I need to start writing them down!

Developments:  Craft's hand-eye coordination is getting better and better - he's very purposeful with his hands these days and of course puts everything straight in his mouth.  C is doing remarkably well with solids and is really good at eating from a spoon.  He's getting stronger than ever - he bounces in all of his bouncy contraptions (the jumperoo is a favorite), prefers "standing" (with our help of course) to sitting, and is starting to attempt to sit unassisted some (he doesn't quite have the hang of it yet - he still slouches over but holds his head up really well, but he'll get it before long I'm sure).

Likes:  Morning time and bath time are Craft's two favorite times of day.  Snuggling (especially in the middle of the night lately, oy!).  Eating. Music. Dancing. Laughing. Rolling over. Singing. Talking. Tummy time. Layla. Lilly. Fans. Sitting up. Jumperoo. Door jumper. Going outside. Walks. Bike rides. Being carried in the Ergo. Swimming in the pool.  Being naked (just like big sister). Kicking his legs. Exploring his vocal cords. Belly laughs. 

Dislikes:  Still such a happy boy, even when he's tired!  Craft's main dislikes are being cold, being hungry, when he's ready to nap or when he's gassy.

What I'm Thankful For:  That session is almost over for Dan!  And for two happy, healthy babies.  

What I'm Looking Forward To:  Improved sleep for all - hopefully sooner than later!  :-)

Next Pediatrician Appointment:  Sometime in August - the 6th, I think.

That's all for tonight, friends.  I'll leave you with of C's 5-month photos from my iPhone - too tired and lazy to upload the ones from the "real" camera tonight.  I'm also too lazy to make photo collages out of them so I'm just going to insert the pictures below (sorry inot sorry that I did a terrible job of narrowing down).  The photos are really funny, though, and showcase what a funny little personality Craft is developing - such a little ham!

Craft: I didn't think it was possible for my heart to be any more full, little man, but you came into our lives and made yourself right at home and we are so grateful for you.  You are so happy and sweet - you're such a generally good baby and it's impossible not to smile when you're around.  You are mama's favorite boy, Daddy's little wingman and Big Sister Lilly's favorite play toy/dress-up doll.  We love you so much, sweet boy - now stop growing so quickly!

5 Months Old

My sweet girl is five months old (!!!) today.

She celebrated by sleeping from 7:30 pm - 8:00 am and cooperating during church even though she didn't really get much of a morning nap.  I honestly cannot tell you where the past five months have gone.  They have absolutely flown!  When did my little girl get so big, and why is time moving so fast?!  It's late, so I'll get on to the stats.

Weight/Length: I'm sure you're not surprised to read that I have NO idea.  The problem is that I always write these blogs at night after Lilly goes to bed, and I can't very well go wake her up to weigh and measure her.  If I remember tomorrow (doubtful), I'll check her stats.  I will say that I think she's going to be pretty tall.  It may not look like it, but Dan and I have both noticed that she's thinning out some because she's gotten pretty long.  Also, people who we don't know that see her in public always think she's several months older than she is - my big, chunky girl!

Sleep:  I can't say enough how blessed we've been with this child and her sleeping habits.  On a typical night, Lilly sleeps somewhere between 11-12 hours - her longest night has been 13, but that's not an every night occurrence.  Even with the sleep training we did (read: cry it out) to transition her out of the swaddle, which I still need to blog about (sorry), she never cried when we put her to bed - just woke up during the middle of the night a few times.  It really only took two nights before she was sleeping through the night again.  For a few nights after that, she was waking up at 5:30, eating, and going right back to sleep until 8:00 or 8:30, and then it went back to normal.  This week, before she fully got the hang of rolling over, we had a few more of the 5:30-then-eat-and-right-back-to-sleep mornings, but we seem to be back to normal now.  I can't complain about 5:30, though - since she normally goes to bed around 7:30, that's a solid 10 hours, and I am very thankful that she sleeps through the night.  She is also taking two naps each day.  They vary in length depending on how long she slept the night before, but they are typically close to 2 hours each.  I try not to let her nap much longer than 2-2.5 hours at each nap during the day so that she'll still be tired at night, and I also try not to let naps go past 4:00 or 4:30 pm.  Homegirl is a WILD woman in her sleep - she moves and scoots all around and changes positions frequently.  Until recently, she was sleeping on her back and her side.  Now that she has good control over rolling both ways, for the past few days we've put her down on her back and she's immediately flipped over to her stomach to sleep.  Like mother, like daughter!  She also is still going strong sucking that thumb - again, like mother like daughter.  She mostly does this when she's getting tired or going to sleep, but sometimes she'll just suck her thumb for the fun of it as well.

Feeding: Lilly is still breast feeding like a champ, and eating about every 3 hours during the day (unless she's sleeping, in which case she'll go longer).  We also started her on solids this month, and she's really gotten the hang of eating from a spoon.  For now, she gets solids once each day after a feeding (Normally her last "full" feeding of the day, around 5:30 or so, in order to fill up that little tummy.  I nurse her again right before bed, around 7:00, but she never eats as much at that feeding - we're just topping her off to tide her over until morning!).  So far, she's had rice cereal, which she hated, and bananas and avocados, both of which she loved.  Up next she's going to try pears, sweet potatoes and butternut squash.  After I've introduced a few more solid foods and we have a variety, I might increase feedings to twice/day - a fruit in the morning and a veggie in the evening.  So far, I've made all of her food.

Firsts This Month:  Rolling over - she can go both ways now, should she choose to do so.  She's much better at rolling from her back to her stomach.  I know that she can roll from her stomach to her back - I've seen her do it when she thought no one was watching - but a lot of the times if she rolls onto her stomach and doesn't want to be there, she'll fuss until we help her turn back over.  First time eating solids.  First slumber party with grandparents (Mommy and Daddy were at a wedding).  I'm sure there are more that I'm not remembering, but those are the big ones.

Developments:  I feel like Lilly changes every day.  As mentioned above, she's rolling over both ways, eating solids, and sucking her thumb.  Her hand-eye coordination is improving, and she's starting to figure out what her hands do.  She used to bat at her toys, then graduated to grabbing them last month, but now it's like she realizes what she's doing - she will grab a toy and put it straight to her mouth to chew on it.  She's "standing up" a lot more, with our help of course.  She's learning to hold her weight up with her legs and is straightening them out and "standing" a lot more than she used to.  She can also sit up a lot better.  She's not quite to the point where she can do it on her own, but she's close - she doesn't require as much support as she used to.

Likes: Water of any kind.  She prefers it to be warm, but we learned from her first dip in the pool that she likes splashing enough that she'll tolerate cold water, too.  Baths, snuggles, sucking her thumb, the stroller/walks/baby k'tan, eating, avocados, bananas, music, dancing, laughing, rolling over, talking, tummy time, Layla, the fan, the bumbo seat, summer infant super seat (this one is MUCH better than the bumbo for babies with chubby legs like L, but the bumbo seat is a little higher in the back so there's slightly more support when they don't have good head control), Daddy, Layla, Sophie the giraffe, oball, her lovie, being outside and being naked.  Proof:

Dislikes: Being cold, having her clothes changed, being hungry, not getting your attention the minute she demands it, putting on sunscreen, being bored.

What I'm Thankful For: The blessing that is Lilly, and a husband who is not only very hands-on but who helps out with anything and everything, in regards to parenting and otherwise.

What I'm Looking Forward To: MY LITTLE SISTER IS GETTING MARRIED THIS WEEKEND!  We are SO excited to celebrate with her, to spend the weekend with all of our family and friends, for Josh to become an Eaker (wink!) and to FINALLY be related to Tracy!  ;-)

Next Pediatrician Appointment: July 25.  The pediatrician's office called last week to confirm her 6-month appointment for tomorrow, June 25.  Thanks to Jen keeping me on my toes about dates, I realized that she is only 5 months old, so we called to reschedule for next month.

How Mommy's Doing: Fabulously!  Having some trouble with body image.  I wasn't quite at my ideal weight pre-pregnancy, and now I've lost all of my pregnancy pounds but my weight is just distributed differently and I feel gross.  I don't want to do any crazy diets because I've done a lot of reading on how it affects milk supply, so really I just need to focus on eating better.  My problem is in my will power, and the fact that I'd rather eat chocolate than just about anything else any day of the week.  :-)


This post is long as usual, and it's time for this Mama to go to bed!  I'll leave you with WAY too many pictures of Lilly from the past few days - I can't ever narrow them down!


Having a very serious early morning conversation with Daddy:

The facial expressions!!!:

Yesterday, we set her kiddie pool up in the back yard and she and Daddy had a pool date.  They had the best time - she absolutely loved it!  Probably because she got to be naked AND outside, but whatever.

Yet again, the expressions!!!:  

Hope you all had a  great weekend!


Sarah