I am FIVE months old!
I like: when mom tries to get me to say "mama", when my feet or cheeks are being played with, when I have a full belly and clean bum, when I've slept good, when I get to cuddle with mom...I'm actually a pretty happy baby as long as I'm involved in the action.
I dislike: being hungry, being tired, laying down for too long, loud noises, when the older girls get in her face (all like last month, but these things don't happen TOO often)
I am now: She's growing into 3-6 month size clothes and slowly growing out of size 1 diapers. We have a weight check on Monday to see if she's back on track for weight so I'll know better at that point, but I think she's gaining pretty well lately.
A Typical Day looks like:
She wakes up around 7:30 AM (though some days she's actually slept until almost 8, which is when I have to wake her up)
7:45 - I give her her probiotic, change her bum and give her a 6 oz bottle (usually only 2 oz is breast milk, the rest formula)
8-9:30 she plays on the swing, play mat, or whatever will make her happiest. Sometimes we'll do bumbo time, sometimes she just wants to be held.
9:30-10:45/11 nap time. No more swaddle, but she does get put in a sleep sac in the pack n play, binky in, lights out, and fan on. She usually is out within minutes.
11:00 - next 6 oz bottle and diaper change.
11:00 - 12:30 play time (swing, tummy time, play mat, whatever works) and she usually gets a poop out at this point.
12:30-2 nap time. Same routine as before.
2 - next 6 oz bottle and diaper change
2-3:30 play time
3:30 - 5:00 nap time. Same routine as before. If she wakes up before 5 then her and I will hang out while daddy works out with the older girls
5:00 - next 6 oz bottle and diaper change
5 - 5:30 play time
5:30-6 we do dinner. We JUST started giving her little tastes of food tonight at this time so she can be a part of dinner.
6-7 doing whatever for the night (aka free/play time)
7-7:45 we start our show for the night, at 7:10 ish she gets her last bottle of the night (5.5 oz) and just relax at this point. She might get a little cranky, especially if she woke up from the last nap early, but we keep her entertained until bed. If it's bath night (Sunday and Thursday for her), that starts at 7:20 ish
7:45 get ready for bed. We change her diaper, put on the owlet, put on pajamas, put on the sleep sac, lay her down and give her the binky. No more swaddling and she's good at putting herself to sleep.
This Month: Our nights have gotten a TON better! We still switch nights on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but we've gotten to where we don't immediately respond when she starts making noises. We want her to either put herself back to sleep or find the binky on her own and she's REALLY good at doing that. We've had a couple nights where we didn't need to do anything and quite a few nights where she just needs our help once. So we're sleeping MUCH better. I'd move her to her own room at this point, but I don't want to be walking into the nursery to help her so I'm okay keeping her with us for a little longer.
She's been a MUCH happier baby this last month too. She loves to play with her toes and with toys and she's rolling from back to belly ALL the time. She can roll from belly to back, but she still thinks she can't and will start crying before she even tries, so that's a bit of work. But other than that she's a smiley baby, but we still can't get her to laugh at the same thing twice...little stinker.
I took the older girls on a 4.5 day trip to Idaho and when we got back it seemed like things just felt better. The older girls got some mom time, Lucy and Larry bonded more (she smiles all the time when she sees him now), and even the kitties seem to be doing better now. I think it was great timing for us.
Lucy got to celebrate Halloween AND Daylight Savings Time ending in the same weekend. I joked before the DST that it would either make her sleep WAY worse or WAY better, I knew it wouldn't stay the same....luckily for us it got WAY WAY better. I think that was when things shifted. Halloween was also a blast! We put her in the bumble bee costume we got for Cara when she was a baby and she was adorable. She got to come with us while I took the older girls out for trick-or-treating and everyone ooh'd and aaah'd over her. I didn't keep her out too long since she was getting squished in the stroller, but I like to think she still had fun.
As for food, we had to put a hold on giving her baby food at 4 months like the others. Her spitting up was just getting out of hand and with the dr worried about her not gaining weight I knew we had to focus on that. She still spits up very often, but it's not nearly as much. I'm excited to see what she is at her weight check on Monday. Because she stopped pooping ALL day long and doesn't spit up as much I think it'll be better. We've found we have to let her lay down to eat, then wait about 2 minutes before we pick her up, then burp her for about 2 minutes, then put her back down and immediately give her the binky and make sure she doesn't roll over so quickly. It's tedious, but it's necessary. Because she's been doing better and is ALWAYS eyeing our food, I started giving her tastes of our food this week (only soft stuff, nothing chunky, she loves Larry's morning smoothie haha) and that's been going really good. I'm thinking if her weight check is good we can actually start to give her food at our dinner time.
I'll say I'm really feeling we've got a good handle on the 3 kids life and it really hasn't been too bad...now that we're used to a baby again haha.
Update on last month's goals:
- Sleeping longer with no feedings or grunting: 98% check! She's doing great without a feeding and can sleep in, but we still need a tiny bit more work on binky stuff at night.
- More tummy time: now that she's all sort of rolling she's getting tummy time ALL the time.
- Sleeping without a swaddle: 100% check! She just has her sleep sac and a binky and she's good.
- More bumbo/sitting up time: we just started doing this more. She likes the bumbo, I've just been nervous it'll make her spit up more. But she does good as long as we wait till a while after a feeding.
- More rolling and laughing: she does this a lot, we just can't ever catch it on camera.
- More sensory stuff: she LOVES feeling things these days. I try and read her a book as often as I can at night and she loves feeling them. She also plays with toys more and I think she's liking feeling things (she's a grabber for sure - always grabbing clothes, hair, phones, books, etc.)
- Celebrate holidays: halloween was a big check, now we're on our way to Thanksgiving. I'm SO excited!
Goals for next month:
- Binky work at night, or more self soothing
- Possibly move over to her own room??
- More book time
- Work on sitting up and grabbing
- More Holidays!!
