5 Months of Will Fun

Dear William,

Happy 5 months Little Man! Again, time seems like it is flying. Although, it also seems to be standing still on those days that you get me up every hour or two all night long. Haha!

You are getting so very big. A true "Young Baby" from what I have been told. You didn't have a formal doctor appointment this month so I only have my estimates on height and weight this time. I measured you numerous times and kept getting between 27.75 and 28 inches, so I am just going to say you are 27.75. I also weighed you over and over again and you tended to fall right around 17 lbs, 13 oz. Again, these should all be taken with a grain of salt because I am doing it informally. You could be a bit larger or smaller than either of those estimates.  I have noticed that your rate of weight gain is slowing, which is typical for a breastfed baby. Apparently it is common for you to gain a lot for the first four months and then slow down because you can regulate how much you eat very easily and only eat what you want. Something like that. You are entirely out of your 6 month clothing with the exception of a couple of pairs of pants that you wear very rarely because it is officially hot here in Florida and those are definitely too short. We are really pushing it with those. All of your onesies and your shorts are 9 months now. Craziness! You also have two six month sleepers but I think we really need to get you more 9 month ones because those are definitely getting too small. Your umbilical hernia appears to be healed at this point. Thank goodness! The skin that comprises your bellybutton is dark. I think that is from the stretching from the hernia. I don't know if that will be like that forever or if that could change, but right now it is just something I noticed. I can see the outlines of four bottom teeth right now and we are anxiously awaiting them to pop through. Kenzie cut her first teeth at just over 5 months. I wonder if you will be the same. I have been seeing the outlines for about 3 weeks now. You are still drooling like crazy, biting when nursing, and chewing on whatever you can find. You are also sometimes fussy and I am attributing a lot of that to teething, as well. You will sometimes randomly scream once and then stop. I think that's teeth. Your sleep suffers as well but we are making it.

I love those baby blues!

You are still quite the eater. You eat about every 3 hours during the day, sometimes more often. You are so funny and crack me up all the time when it comes to eating. If you see me get ready to feed you in any way, whether it is unhooking those blasted bra clips or bringing out the cover when we are out and about, you get the biggest grin on  your face. You aren't (yet) one of those babies that pulls at my shirt or anything but when you are offered food, you gladly take it. You are also still in the talk all the time while eating stage. Eating is taking longer,on average, now a days. You are also super dis-tractable still. This is not really my favorite stage of nursing. Although I do have to admit that one of my favorite things about nursing is going on right now. I love that it is warm enough to put you in only a onesie and when you nurse, your little feet come up and you try to either play with them or you hold my hands. Those little chunky legs and fat feet make me smile. We are still working on that bottle thing. It wasn't exactly a success when I went to the conference earlier this month. You didn't want that bottle... at all. We have since switched to a new bottle system and you are doing okay. Weird thing is that you are often okay with ME giving you a bottle but don't want anyone else to do it. That is just strange. Most breastfed babies will not take a bottle from Mommy. You are just so weird. =) We are working on getting you to take it from other people. The plus is though that you take it. That is the first step. When you do take it, you can down 3 oz in less than 3 minutes. I tend to not give you anything more than that in case you refuse the bottle. I'm not willing to risk that much Mommy milk because it isn't fun to get. You were watching me pump the other day and you looked so very concerned. I felt so bad that you were upset about where your milk was going that I walked away from you to finish pumping. Haha! We haven't started solids yet. I really want to wait until 6 months. We might start a week or so early with oatmeal so that I can tell the pediatrician at your 6 month appointment how you are doing. No rush. I am really excited to start making your food soon though. I will probably start that up about half way through this coming month so that we have some ready when you are ready. It's such an exciting time, but as we get closer it is a bit bittersweet. I am so sad that you are growing so fast but so happy to see you thriving.

Baby hide and seek in Mommy and Daddy's sheets!

Your sleeping patterns are getting a bit more regular. You take about 3 naps a day. You get up around 7am or 7:30am every day. Your awake times are between 1.5 and 2 hours. Your naps can run anywhere from 45 minutes to 2.5 hours. Just depends on the mood you are in. I have noticed in the last week that you seem to have your first seriously established nap. Your first nap of the day sometimes takes place while we are out and about. The same goes for your late afternoon nap, but we are usually home for your mid-day nap. It also tends to coincide to a point with your sister's daily nap. You typically go down between 12 and 1 depending on what time you woke up from your prior nap and it is usually about 2 hours long. You normally wake up about 45 minutes in, but you have finally learned to put yourself back to sleep without help. At night you are sleeping roughly 2-4 hour stretches. That varies by day. It's exhausting, but I know it won't be like this forever so we are making it work. I get so excited when you sleep longer stretches, but just when I think that might be your new normal... you go back to 2 hours. How fun... You go down fairly easy though, so that I guess that is our plus in all of this. Your sister took forever to go to sleep at this age but would sleep longer stretches. You do not take any extra help to get to sleep most days but your sleep patterns are far different. I still nurse you before naps and bed, but most days I lay you down awake. Even though you are nursing, you aren't necessarily "nursing to sleep" most days. You still take a bath every other day so that is part of your routine. Speaking of baths, you LOVE them. You splash like a crazy person. We are still using your baby tub but I'm hoping to move to the inflatable tub soon and then follow with baths in the regular tub shortly after that. It is just so much more convenient than the little tub. You are also getting too big for it anyway. You wiggle around so much that I have to make sure to watch you so that you don't end up wiggling under the water. Not that I would leave you unattended anyway... but you have to be watched like a hawk. I can't take my eyes off you for a moment even if Kenzie is doing something crazy nearby and needs to be stopped.

As for your physical development, you have perfected the tripod sit. You can sit in that position for extended periods of time with no issues. Your new problem is that you want to sit up straight, but you can't quite figure out the mechanics of it and usually end up throwing yourself backwards. If you are sitting in a chair, like your rocker, than you remain seated. If you are using your boppy as a way to make sure you don't fall over, you end up laying back on it with your head hanging over the back. It doesn't appear comfortable and I move you quickly, but you seem to think it is funny. As of late this week you have started to sit up some without something bracing you from behind. I have noticed that if you are sitting in a tripod sit in front of me you can sometimes sit up straight for a short period of time before you lean backwards. We still have your swing hanging around, but I have noticed that we are using it less and less. Also, if we sit you in it for just a minute and forget to strap you or plan to remove you really quickly so we choose not to strap you (don't worry... we don't leave you there unstrapped at this point if we aren't going to be right next to you), you very quickly wiggle your way down and your legs end up hanging out. If we don't catch you in time, you are going to end up on the floor. I think it's time to put it away. Maybe another week or two. I think it will be gone by 6 months. I would much rather have you on the floor getting the opportunity to use your body to move and play.  You also now "stand" with support. If I help you balance, you will hold all your weight on your own legs. Yay, Will!! You like to play the sit up, stand up game. I lay you on your back and then pull you into a sit before pulling you to a stand. You laugh hysterically like it is the greatest game ever. Then I lower you back to a sit and back onto your back. You are easily amused. =) We do still have the stationary jumper/excersaucer thing hanging around. You use it for maybe 15 minutes a day, usually in 5 minute spurts. It is good if I am bringing in groceries or trying to put finishing touches on dinner. I don't know how much longer it will be around either. As soon as you become mobile I plan to bring back out the gates and give you the run of the living room while I do things like that, just as we did with Kenzie. You are still rolling very, very rarely. That just isn't at the top of your to do list. You can easily push yourself up on your arms when you are on your tummy, you just choose to not roll to your back. You love to grab your feet when you are on your back and often like to roll to your side, but you choose to not go all the way over. Despite your lack of wanting to roll, you seem to want to crawl. You aren't doing it yet, of course, but you spend a lot of time trying to use your legs and push yourself forward when you are on your tummy. You haven't yet figured out that you need to lift your head up too when you do it, so you don't get very far. If I put my hands right behind your feet you will use them to push off and you can push yourself clear across a room with my help. I liken this movement you have going to that of an inchworm. Even without help you can move yourself a few inches across a room, but it takes a lot of effort and time. You learned to sit fairly early so who knows? Maybe you will crawl early. Or maybe you will be like your sister and a bit later doing that. Again, time will tell. Oh! You are also what I like to refer to as a "hip baby" now. I mean that I can carry you around on my hip using one arm and have one hand entirely free. Thank goodness! I can get so much more done that way. Haha! Even with your lack of rolling, you are also quite the mover and shaker in your crib. I lay you down on your back and you usually stay that way, but you can spin in circles and just this past week I put your crib bumper (it's mesh so no worries...) in so that you would stop getting your arms and legs stuck between the bars.

You are such a talker! You make specific sounds more often than others. You like to say "ah" a lot and I have heard "ma" and "ha" numerous times. You also often say "eh". I like hearing your little voice and the differentiated sounds you can make. The last week or so you have been making this trilling noise. I can't do it, but Daddy can so I try to get him to do it to you to see if you will mimic it. You haven't mimicked him yet, but you can definitely make the sound yourself. Kenzie can't do it either so it's funny to me that you can and you seem to enjoy doing it. As we did with Kenzie, we do not baby talk with you so I wonder if you will be like Kenzie and skip a lot of those baby like babbles that babies often use in favor of using approximations of real words immediately. She didn't babble syllables over and over again before just starting with real words. That also meant she had a bit of a latency period where she didn't really talk much before her language exploded and is now off the charts. I promise that if you choose to be like that, that I will not freak out like I did with her. I was convinced she couldn't hear for a period of time. Oh well. We shall see how you take to speaking. Time will tell. About two days ago you learned to blow raspberries. This is one of the cutest, and yet grossest milestones. I know how important that skill is for future speech and you certainly love to practice. Any time we talk to you, you smile like a fool. You are seriously one of the smiliest babies I have ever met. I love it!! You also laugh. A lot! You started belly laughing last month and now you have the cutest little laugh any time something amuses you.  Your favorite is getting your pjs on at the end of the day or any time we change your clothes. You love being naked and think that is hilarious.

You went on your first road trip this last month. We went to Mississippi. You did amazing!! You slept most of the way there and back. You only fussed for brief periods of time on each drive. While there, you took naps, snuggled with friends and family, smiled for everyone, and slept just like you do at home. We were so proud of you and after that we are now ready to plan a trip for this summer. You and your sister did so great that we are excited to start traveling more.

 You went to the beach for the first time this month. We went over to Grandma and Grandaddy's house and although it wasn't as warm as I would like, we decided to go to the beach. You thought the sand was... interesting. I didn't get to take your shoes off because it was too chilly, but I put you on it and you refused to look up because you just HAD to inspect the sand under your feet. I can't wait for the summer when we can take you and Kenzie to the beach as often as possible.

This upcoming month holds another road trip. This time to Atlanta to celebrate your cousin's first birthday! How exciting!! We will also be celebrating your first Easter while we are in Atlanta. Before all that we are celebrating your first St. Patrick's Day. It's a minimal holiday, really, but you do have a bit of Irish in you. =)

Happy 5 months Little Man! You are our little chunk and I love seeing your smiling face every day! You and your sister complete us. I love you!

XOXO,
Mommy