Hello everyone! Can you believe it? His five month update is up on his five month birthday! That's right, this mommy is ahead of the game and posting his update on time (it does helps that the 1st of September falls on a holiday, but I'm not going to burst my bubble).
Five months old already?! Next month, he will be six months old. Now that really puts it into perspective. Where is my little baby going? I have to say it, I am a little glad to get out of the fourth month. This has been quite a difficult month. Between sleep regression and teething, sleep deprivation is in the fore-front. Of course we aren't guaranteed Max's sleeping schedule will go back to what it was anytime soon or that he won't have any more teething pain, but I like to think we are on the up-and-up, you know? Think positive thoughts...To make this a better update, I have added quite a few more pictures than normal. I don't think anyone will complain about that! After all, he is the cutest baby boy in the whole wide world.
Five months old already?! Next month, he will be six months old. Now that really puts it into perspective. Where is my little baby going? I have to say it, I am a little glad to get out of the fourth month. This has been quite a difficult month. Between sleep regression and teething, sleep deprivation is in the fore-front. Of course we aren't guaranteed Max's sleeping schedule will go back to what it was anytime soon or that he won't have any more teething pain, but I like to think we are on the up-and-up, you know? Think positive thoughts...To make this a better update, I have added quite a few more pictures than normal. I don't think anyone will complain about that! After all, he is the cutest baby boy in the whole wide world.
Height/Weight: Without a five month doctor appointment, we are not 100% sure what his weight is. Weighing him on our scale though, he is 17.9 pounds (gained 0.9 lbs) and is 27.5 inches long (grew 0.5 inches).
Routine: Nothing really new to report here, except Max tends to be awake more throughout the day (less/shorter naps), which means bedtime can be earlier. Even though he is still in bed by 8:30pm, it seems like his nighttime routine has started earlier. More recently, I have added a little playtime before his bath. I'm not sure why I haven't done this sooner (the whole "I'm a bad mom" thought comes into my head when I think about it, over analyzing everything). We have a little one that counts on us now, so we shouldn't just sit on the couch like we used too or like we would prefer. Max needs our full attention and needs time to learn and interact. I know he does that at the sitter's, but Todd and I need to do our part! Plus, playtime is easier now since Max is ok laying on his back for periods of time now. For a while, he would immediately start crying once we put him on the floor. That's not the case anymore! We put a blanket on the floor and let him lay on his back first. He plays with Sophie the Giraffe and an orange ball that he loves. I also use this time to "teach" him to roll. He is not rolling yet and I am ok with that. All babies roll on their own time. When he is ready, he will do it. I know once he starts rolling and becomes more mobile, it will be entirely different, so we should take advantage of this time! In the past couple of days though, he is showing more interest in rolling and has an easier time with tummy time. His neck muscles are becoming so strong, its awesome to see. One thing to mention, I have noticed around 6-6:30pm every evening, Max always seems to get fussy. Weird.
Sleeping: Oh sleep, how I miss you. Like I mentioned above, most nights he is in bed by 8:30pm. But we never know how long he will sleep. This whole month has been difficult when it comes to sleeping. The longest he lasted in his crib was 4:30am (!) and that happened only once, unfortunately. Now get this. The earliest he has woken up was 10:30pm (!). Granted, we probably could have just given him his binky at this point and he may have fallen asleep on his own, but that was the last thing on our minds. Todd still goes and gets him and brings him to our bed for me to feed and soothe him. Who knows, maybe we are making it worse by doing this. He could be facing separation anxiety, or just getting used to coming in bed with us and would rather be there instead of alone in his crib. I mean, that totally makes sense and I don't blame him. But the thought of having to get up again and feed him and then go back to bed 30 min-1 hour later does not sound fun to me. So, Max is not sleeping through the night like he used too and I think that is the issue that we have, the fact that he used to sleep through the night. We realize how lucky we are when he did sleep all night because not all babies do that this young. Hopefully we will get back to that soon!
Eating/Feeding: We are still going strong on breast feeding! Since he is more aware of his surroundings, he does get distracted pretty easily while feeding. He also doesn't just lay there anymore! He is busy moving his legs and arms and he likes to grab my shirt...and my boob (ouch!). When burping him on my shoulder he likes to stand, often standing on my stomach. Its a little uncomfortable for me, but it shows me just how big he is getting. On another note, we have begun to notice that he really prefers boob over bottle. We've always known that of course, but we are starting to have a harder trying to feed him a bottle in public. We are not sure if this is just a stage and he just needs extra soothing while he is teething. We are hoping that is the case because Todd and our family loves feeding him. Our sitter hasn't mentioned any issues with feeding him through the day, so that is good.
This month, we have started adding rice cereal to his night feed right before bed. Unfortunately, Max seems to have a love/hate relationship with rice cereal and now it seems like more of a hate relationship. We have pretty much called it quits on giving it to him because we ended up wasting more milk than he would actually drink. We tried different rice cereals and different amounts each night to see if that would help. We started giving him 2 oz to see if he liked it and we didn't want to overdue it from the start. After all, he is used to being nursed right before bed, not being bottle fed. So we didn't want to change his routine up drastically. The first day he did like the rice cereal and acted like he wanted more. That excited us, so the second day we made more and of course he didn't want any of it. The next day we tried again and he would eat it. Long story short, the bed time feed was very unpredictable. If he didn't want it, he would get really upset and start crying. Of course that would break our hearts and worried us even more for the night to come. Those nights I would nurse him not only to feed him before bed, but also to soothe him asleep. Towards the end of the month, I decided to stop forcing it on him. He has had sleep issues all month, so when he would eat it, it obviously wasn't helping him sleep longer anyway. No need to force something on Max that he didn't want and no need to stress us out over it!
Behaviour: Now onto the fun stuff! I hope this blog post doesn't sound depressing, with all of the sleeping and eating issues. Or have I candy-coated everything? I mean, it was a pretty tough month. Max is still a really happy baby though and we love him more and more everyday. While thinking of what to write in this section of the blog, I have realized how much he has learned/started to do this month! Our little baby is growing up!
I still just have to look at him and he will smile at me. Oh how I love his smiles! Every time we go out, he smiles at anyone who pays attention to him and I love seeing that. He will be a heart breaker, I fear. And his giggles! He used to need to be tickled to giggle, but in the past week he is giggling so much more (and not only after tickling). He likes when Todd puts him upside down and he will giggle, I have a certain way to pick him up and he will giggle. I think he likes when Todd is rough with him. I don't get it. Boys. There is no sound better than his giggle. Every time I hear it, I fall more in love with him. Speaking of sounds, Max has definitely learned how to take full advantage of his voice. He has learned how to scream/screech (unfortunately) and has also started this new gurgling/"Chewbacca" sound, that I absolutely love. When we are out in public, he can be so noisy with all of the sounds he now makes. I guess that is better than a crying baby! He is always talking. He still drools ALL the time and needs a bib just so he doesn't soak his clothes. His teeth have definitely been hurting him this month, but there is still no sign of them popping through at this point. His hands are constantly in his mouth and we have had to give him tylenol to help soothe him. Some days were extra hard and it seemed like he only wanted to be held, and would only take a nap if held. One afternoon I rocked him in the chair for three hours straight while he slept. Thank goodness my mom lives so close and was able to give Todd and I a little break that day. My butt was numb, to say the least.
He now knows how to take the binky out of his mouth, but has a hard time putting the correct part of the binky back in his mouth. He actually chews on Sophie the Giraffe now, and prefers her over any of his other toys at the moment. He is better at grabbing his toys, he will actually grab anything now, including my hair! When he is at work with me sitting in my lap facing the desk, he will grab for the papers and crinkle them. He likes to touch things and scratch at them. We know he recognizes faces and definitely notices the cats when they walk past him. As I mentioned earlier how he doesn't just lay there while nursing, he also doesn't just lay there when changing his diaper. He kicks and straightens his little legs, making diaper changing a challenge! He loves watching cartoons. Busytown Mysteries and Thomas the Train are his favorites at the moment. Max also went swimming this month for the first time, which also means he slept somewhere away from home! He didn't like swimming much, just wanted to be held in the pool, and slept just as good as he has been at home, which is not very good.
I still just have to look at him and he will smile at me. Oh how I love his smiles! Every time we go out, he smiles at anyone who pays attention to him and I love seeing that. He will be a heart breaker, I fear. And his giggles! He used to need to be tickled to giggle, but in the past week he is giggling so much more (and not only after tickling). He likes when Todd puts him upside down and he will giggle, I have a certain way to pick him up and he will giggle. I think he likes when Todd is rough with him. I don't get it. Boys. There is no sound better than his giggle. Every time I hear it, I fall more in love with him. Speaking of sounds, Max has definitely learned how to take full advantage of his voice. He has learned how to scream/screech (unfortunately) and has also started this new gurgling/"Chewbacca" sound, that I absolutely love. When we are out in public, he can be so noisy with all of the sounds he now makes. I guess that is better than a crying baby! He is always talking. He still drools ALL the time and needs a bib just so he doesn't soak his clothes. His teeth have definitely been hurting him this month, but there is still no sign of them popping through at this point. His hands are constantly in his mouth and we have had to give him tylenol to help soothe him. Some days were extra hard and it seemed like he only wanted to be held, and would only take a nap if held. One afternoon I rocked him in the chair for three hours straight while he slept. Thank goodness my mom lives so close and was able to give Todd and I a little break that day. My butt was numb, to say the least.
He loves when I hold him in the Moby wrap (and so do I), and Todd loves carrying him in the Baby Bjorn. He is not sitting on his own yet, but I know it is right around the corner! Currently he is in size 3 diapers and has been in 3 month clothes all month. His 3 month onesies are starting to get tight now, so I think I am going to get into the 6 month onesies this week.
I am going to try to post more on this blog, not just his monthly updates. So keep a look out and continue to stop by! I am also thinking about adding a page of our Instagram photos. They are too good not to share.
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