When does it change? When do you change over from weeks to months. My husband and I were talking about this the other day and he exclaimed that Emmett was 5 months already. Well according to my calculations he doesn’t turn 5 months until September 27. Let’s not put the cart before the horse here! I’m not willing to let him grow up any faster than is necessary. I told Chad that if we were to go by weeks, he’d actually turn 1 way before April 27, 2013. So we were wondering, when does one go from weeks to months? Well I think 5 months is a great time to start. I left off talking about weeks 18 and 19 but I think I’m going to start just giving monthly updates for the baby and maybe I can start blog posting on things I actually want to blog about like weight loss, what I’ve been up to and recipes that I have on the back burner. Not to mention WORKOUTS and why I started this blog in the first place, health and how to stay fit while being a mom, having a job and basically just having a life outside of a baby. But let’s be honest, I’ve loved blogging about my babies weeks and what we have been up to but I’m beginning to realize it’s becoming a bit difficult to describe every little detail in one huge post just talking about our weeks. So I’ll update on week 20 but also throw in weeks 21 and 22 to boot. This is my babies 23rd week of life or 5th month so I thought I’d just combine everything. I’m also not taking as many pictures as I was in the beginning. I really need to change that! So here goes…weeks 20-24 or 5 months…
So so so many changes have happened with our little guy this past month. He just seems to keep becoming more and more interactive.
Let’s talk about sleep. We went through almost an entire month of the dreaded regression that people talk about where the baby starts sleeping long stretches through the night, usually 8-10 hours then all of a sudden they stop. Yes, we can related. It first started off with getting up and putting his paci. in once or twice a night. No big deal. Then it went to 3-5 times then at most 7-10 times! We finally let him “cry it out” a few nights in a row but you can only let him cry for so long before you start wondering how the neighbors are feeling about your decisions at 2:30 in the morning. I then would feed him occasionally and that seemed to work sometimes. Luckily we seem to be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel this last week. He has now started sleeping for about 10-13 hour stretches at a time for no reason what so ever. Naps used to be taken only in the swing because for whatever reason he didn’t want to sleep in his crib during the night. I knew in my head that this was absurd but had no clue how to break him of this. Well, one day a few weekends ago we decided to experiment. He slept for 2.5 hours in his crib for his first nap of the day! He has been sleeping really well in his crib in the mornings but the afternoons are touch and go. Sometimes I get 30 minutes in there if I’m lucky. Once I transfer him to the swing I can maybe get another 20-30 minutes in there. I used to think he could only sleep in there if it was dark so we have been putting a thick blanket over the window during the day to shield the light. We went to KC last week and put him in the crib that Chad’s parent’s have without a shield on the window and he took TWO 2.5 hour naps in one day! Ok so it’s not the light afterall. Guess it was just something he needed to get used to? Well the naps are still touch and go. He is not consistent. Some days we get 2.5-3 hours out of him, other days we’re lucky if he sleeps for 20 minutes. I will be excited when we get him into a more set schedule (if that’s even possible) so we know when we can leave the house for play groups and outings. Luckily winter is fast approaching so I don’t think we’ll feel the same need to get out and do so much on cold snowy days. Maybe I’ll be able to squeeze some cuddle time out of him if I’m lucky.
Let’s talk about eating. I have been slowly experimenting with different foods. I’d love to follow a baby led weaning type of feeding for the little guy but I truly still feel as though he’s too little still. Baby led weaning is where the baby doesn’t eat mush but rather the baby is given large pieces of soft foods and they do the experimenting and “chewing”. He doesn’t have any teeth yet so I don’t want him choking on anything. I need to do more reading up to see which foods are good starter foods. I have read that a few popular foods are sweet potatoes, avocados, bananas, cooked green beans, eggs, and pita with hummus. Breast feeding is cheap and convenient so we’ll see how much longer we can pull off 100% breast milk with him. Speaking of breast feeding. I know a lot of new mom’s who have a heck of a time breast feeding and need to go to specialists and support groups. We have had zero problems with that and it continues to go swimmingly. He latched on from the second he was given the opportunity and never looked back. My supply is also overwhelming. It doesn’t look like this well is going to dry up anytime soon! We have also started giving him water. This is a fun activity when we are at a restaurant and he is bored. The crazy thing is he won’t take it from a bottle. He will only drink it out of an adult cup! It’s so much fun to watch him reach for a water glass and somehow seem to know exactly what to do with it. He puts it up to his mouth and laps the water right up! It’s pretty adorable. Speaking of bottles, bottle feeding is still going really well too. I know that some babies either choose one or the other, bottle or breast, but this kid really doesn’t care where it comes from. The only things he doesn’t like to do anymore are drink cold bottles and breast feed under the hooter hider. The breast feeding becomes a challenge when we are out because I either need to go to the car or someplace where there is little to no action going on so that the kid can focus on what he’s supposed to be doing. It’s much easier just to pump and take a bottle when we know we are going to be out for long stretches of time. This way he can watch what is going on around him and I don’t have to worry about finding a quiet place for him to eat. It’s a win win!
Let’s talk about play time. He still has very little interest in rolling over. I was concerned about this for about 2.5 seconds but he does roll over when he really wants something. He just could care less about it if he doesn’t have to do it. He has been reaching for toys and puts everything in his mouth. He loves anything you give him or don’t want to give him. He reaches for everything! He loves it when we go grocery shopping and I’m looking at a grocery list. Those are usually destroyed by the end of our trips. He laughs at everything. This kid doesn’t hold back on smiles. He is probably the easiest baby I’ve ever seen when it comes to making someone smile. All you have to do is look at him and it’s over. I’ve also noticed that when he gets his diaper changed he laughs a lot. He loves hearing peoples voices and he also loves being held. Basically as long as you’re showing interest in him he’s happy. If you ignore him for too long he tries to get your attention by screaming at the top of his lungs. I do think he loves hearing his own voice. It’s pretty funny. I’ll be in the other room cooking dinner and I can just hear him screaming for attention. Right now I have him lying next to me while I’m typing this and he knows I’m paying more attention to the computer so he’s frantically screaming and now starting to cry because he knows that the attention is not on him at the moment. It’s cute and annoying. He is also a very social little guy. Not only does he smile at adults, he LOVES other babies and kids. He just thinks other babies are the most interesting and entertaining things on the block. Older kids (2-4) are even more entertaining. He loves to just watch them. I am pretty excited to see how his personality shapes up when he’s in pre-k and kindergarten. I’m afraid we’ll be getting a lot of reports saying that Emmett is a sweet boy but that he talks a lot in class. His uncle Chad was the same way…
Let’s talk about running! I pulled the BOB out a tad earlier than you are supposed to. The pediatrician said 6 months, the BOB website says 8 months. I started doing some reading on why you can’t put them in earlier and basically what I got out of my research is that as long as the child’s head and neck are under control then go for it! So go for it we did! I remember the exact date too. I didn’t want to get up early for the 50th day in a row so I ran the dog her usual 3 miles that morning then came back and had zero interest in continuing my jog. I started doing the research and a lot of people were saying that they took the infant insert out at 3 months. I figured as long as I wasn’t running him on our janky sidewalks and on rugged terrain that it should be fine. The first run I did with him was more of a run/walk.
I walked to a park, ran around it for 2 miles and ran home. Total distance was about 6.5 miles. The next time I decided to just run around the park and drive there and back. That was a failed attempt as E was hungry from the start and I had to feed him while on route. The next time I went I ran to the park and back home and it went wonderfully! He slept for most of the run and when he was awake seemed to really enjoy just being outside! It’s a bit limiting because I have to make sure that no matter where we end up going the roads are smooth but so far it hasn’t been a problem and it’s no more boring than running on a treadmill plus I get the added bonus of sleeping in rather than waking up at 6am, pumping and then running. I’m having trouble getting motivated today but that is only because I have farted around for most of the morning waiting on laundry and by the time it was done I was hungry and E was tired. Maybe we’ll go when he wakes up?
Let’s talk about our social calendar. So far we’ve been able to stay pretty busy. We have taken a trip to the zoo, I joined the Junior League for more of a social outlet than talking about nap times and poopy diapers and we’ve seen friends on occasion on certain weekend nights. We were also invited over the weekend to join a Boker club which is for both guys and gals and includes poker for the men and a bookclub for the women. My friend Emily who now lives in DC hooked us up with a couple that used to live in FL with them and they wanted to know if we’d be interested in joining. Um…ok! Any excuse for a social event and to make friends we’ll take! I just hope they don’t mind a little buddy tagging along on occasion when Meme can’t take him 🙂
So as you can see we’ve kept ourselves nice and busy. For it being the first month of me not working it’s been pretty great. We have more of a schedule than we did when I was on maternity leave and it’s just been easier because now that Emmett is older he can play by himself for periods at a time so that I can cook dinner, blog, or study. Yes, I said study. I am studying still to become certified through ACE as a lifestyle and weight management coach to eventually start my own business counseling people on weight loss. When E cooperates and I feel like studying when he goes down for a nap than it works well. When E doesn’t take naps or I plain just don’t feel like studying the second he does go down for a nap than nothing gets accomplished. Anyways, that’s month 5 in a nutshell. Obviously so much has gone on and since I’m not doing weekly updates it’s a lot to squeeze into one blog post but I’d say so far we are all settling into our new life very nicely. I just love that I’m able to be home with this little guy and really couldn’t imagine having it any other way.
Thin Runner 