Cara is FIVE Months

I am FIVE months old!

Didn't have the sticker...whoops

 

I like: Sucking on my fingers, rolling (and rolling and rolling and rolling haha), sleeping, especially on her belly (YES!), being read to (especially feel-y books), discovering faces, daddy (just daddy, he doesn't even need to be doing anything or even looking at her) and when mommy sings or makes funny sounds

 

 

 

I dislike: Getting stuck on my belly, when I'm hungry/sleepy, being around too many strangers and/or loud noises.

I am now: We didn't have a dr visit this month, so our unofficial weight check says she is just under 14 lbs. (so she isn't gaining as much as I'd like considering she was 13 at her 4 month visit, but we're working on that). She wears size 3-6 months clothes, working her way up to strictly 6 months. She's still in size 2 diapers though.

A Typical Day looks like: Just like the prior months mom leaves for work around 7:30, most of the time she wakes up right as I'm leaving, a couple of times it's been before and sometimes she's given dad a break and slept in a tiny bit. She's usually up for 2 hours before she wants to nap again. She went through a nice growth spurt and now eats about 5 - 6.5 oz bottles. We've added in oatmeal to the breastmilk bottles (we had to upgrade to the level 3 nipples to make that easier) and we started trying out oatmeal and formula food before her last bottle of the night.

 

 

 

This Month I: Finally figured out how to roll over from back to tummy, but forgot how to roll back. It's been so fun watching her roll over, but if only she'd roll back instead of getting frustrated haha. She definitely loves showing off her new skill, even when we're not watching haha. She also started laughing at things for the first time...that was one of the best moments!

We introduced her to a big crowd for (what would've been) my grandpa's 70th birthday and she did okay for a little while, but eventually HATED too many strangers and how noisy we can get when all together. It was sad to watch, but at least we know she can tolerate it for a second.

Football season also started so she's been watching games with mom and we've been loving that! She's also done so well with our nightly activities (sensory play, reading, movie/game nights, etc.) that I'm loving that she'll be growing up with that as the norm.

That smile!!

Parent's Notes: Watching Cara learn is still my favorite part of every day. Weekends are SO nice to spend with her, but then it gets so hard to get excited for work again and missing out on more moments. But we've got a good routine with her throughout the day and for bedtime.

Cara found her thumb while going for her fingers to suck on so I'm thinking we're going to have a thumb sucker soon, but I really hope not! She's got the cutest laugh, she loves exploring and taking new things in. We're still working on socializing her so that she's used to making friends as she gets older, but it's a bit of a work in progress.

She likes splashing water..Once she figures
Out that's what she's supposed to do haha

Cara loves sitting up so she's in the bumbo seat pretty often, but will get sick of it and wants to wiggle around after about 20 minutes. She started sleeping through the night over the last couple weeks (ever since we upgraded her bassinet to the pack n play at night) and we've been loving that! It's been REALLY fun introducing her to new foods and we try and get her to eat more baby food (oatmeal mixed with formula) for our dinner time. Trying to get her used to the high chair AND an eating schedule is still new though.

I'm honestly loving these times with her, you can tell she's learning so much and just taking in everything and it's been so fun playing with her. She's such a happy baby and, from what I'm learning from other's, a pretty easy baby so I'm very thankful for that. She cracks us up daily with her crazy personality that I simply cannot wait to see how that develops as she grows up!

Update on last month's goals:

• Well luckily we found a way to introduce Cara to Halloween by finding some good Disney/Animated Halloween themed movies for movie day (we've done Monsters VS Aliens, Monsters Inc., Monsters University, and Nightmare Before Christmas. )
• It ended up getting cold before we had time to do another hike, but we do still get outside with her and let her look at her surroundings.
• She definitely seems to like the oatmeal cereal. We started with banana that she likes, but now we're doing blueberry and apple and she's been chowing down on that.
• Teething doesn't seem to bother her...yet. We did get a teething mitt and a banana brush that she LOVES chewing on. And, as always, Sophie the Giraffe has been a number one toy as well.
• Fussy time seems to have disappeared, for the most part, and it's helping me feel more involved with Cara and the kind of mom I want to be to have our nightly activities. I'm LOVING how it's been going.
• The new bedtime routine has been awesome. We've taken away the bottle and a TV show and added reading a book and she's transitioned SO smoothly that I'm so relieved. Part of me thinks we maybe should've started it earlier, but another part of me thinks that we must have timed it just right that it's been great. Especially in the pack n play now!

Goals for next month:

• Continue introducing Cara to Halloween stuff (We plan to do the Hotel Transylvania movies, The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown movie, and Casper this next month) with pumpkin carving/guts play and some Halloween (pumpkin flavors) themed baby foods
• Speaking of baby foods, get her to eating more baby foods and less spitting them out or going to her fingers while eating (which is usually her sign of hunger or sleepiness).
• Pick out costumes!
• Keep up with introducing her to more football games. She seems to love them so far and I LOVE that.
• Teach her more signs. So far we're good at doing eat, more, and all done, but I'd like to add cat, sleep, and bath to the mixture too.
• Work on getting Cara to roll over from tummy to back as well as focusing on small items (it shows in the book they should be able to follow a raisin sized item and she's still not too good at that) and sitting up on her own possibly?
• Schedule her 6 month appointment...eesh! Which means I want to make sure we enjoy the last month we have before she's a HALF a year old!! It's definitely going way too fast haha.