Madison: 5 months old

Sleep:  She is doing okay.  One big thing: she is not sleeping in her carseat anymore!  You heard me right, she slept through the night in her carseat for her first 5 months.  For a number of reasons including her having gas, acid reflux, and all of our traveling, we found that it was the best thing for us.  Now, she has been in her pack n play for the last few weeks until we move into our house when she'll transition to the crib.  Sleep in general, things have been a little inconsistent (like, our whole life since about December 17th when we left for the house hunting trip out here).  Here's to hoping that things settle down when we move into the new house on March 1st.  Lately, she has been waking up 2 and 3 times a night.  Not fun for me.  SO, I started "sleep training" or trying to about a week ago.  I will tell you, this girl can cry like it's her job.  She can go for 40 minutes screaming with only a couple breaks to catch a breath.  She cries until she is literally dripping sweat and shaking.  It's pretty bad.  But at the same time, I want her to be able to fall asleep on her own so I don't need to spend 20 minutes putting her down for a 40 minute nap.  This.is.a.journey.  On the other hand, there have been a few times when after crying, fell asleep for 1-2 hours of nap time.  Let's pray more of that comes with practice.  At this very moment, she is napping after fighting a huge battle of crying because she wanted me to hold her for the entire nap.  No can do.  It's going on 1.5 hours napping now (yay!).  Her naps have been inconsistent but consistently not longer than 40 minutes for the last month.  Almost exactly 43 minutes every time.  Not joking.  With all that to say, I know that it could be way worse.

(*I wrote this right when she turned 5 months, so an update: this past week she has been taking 3 naps pretty consistently, the first nap around 9:30am for about 50 minutes, then a 1-2 hour afternoon nap at about 1:00pm, and a third nap in the late afternoon for about 40 minutes)  I think this is the normal schedule for most babies, taking a morning and afternoon nap then maybe a random 3rd sometimes.  Hoping she stays on this!

On top of that, she isn't really taking her binky/pacifier very much at all which seems funny since most babies LOVE them.    She is a unique little lady.

Eating:  We are still breastfeeding, but my milk supply has been up and down, but mostly down.  We've been supplementing formula more and more lately.  It could be because of stress and transition that my body isn't producing normally.  One thing is for sure, she loves baby food.  We've tried oatmeal, bananas, pears, apples, sweet potatoes, carrots.  Her favorite so far has been the bananas.  She is getting better and better at learning how to eat instead of just suck.  She actually opens and closes her mouth now and pulls my hand that holds the spoon toward her mouth.  If she was a little more coordinated, she would probably spoon feed herself.

Carrots!

 She loves bath time.  We give her baths 2-3 times a week and she just sits there kicking and splashing.  She doesn't really like it when I pour water over her face, but I guess I wouldn't either.

She still doesn't really like to lay back.  If someone is holding her, she wants to be standing or sitting straight up.  She can now sit up on her own unless trying to reach for something, in which case she topples over.  She has rolled both ways, back to belly and belly to back now.  When I lay her on the floor and look down a couple minutes later, she is off of the blanket and slowly rolling in all directions. She get's frustrated when she can't reach or grab something, so she is pretty motivated to move.  Just wondering when she is going to get crawling...

Exhibit A.  I placed her in the middle of the mat on her back. 

Exhibit B.  The toys were too boring.  Off to bigger, better things.

We just this week (at 5.5 months) have started unswaddling her at nap times.  She is still swaddled at night.  Other moms: when did you stop swaddling your baby?  I've read a lot online, but there isn't a clear answer that I've found.  We have swaddled her very loosely a few times and she wakes up multiple times a night with her hands in her face completely unswaddled.  She seems to like it so I hate to stop unless it's necessary.  During naps, I keep one or both of her arms out of her swaddle blanket.

She is SO vocal.  Squeals and talking all the time.  There have been a few times when we were at a restaurant or on the phone and got embarrassed because she was so loud (but happy loud).

She is definitely getting a little attitude and getting her own preferences.  She does NOT like peas.  Not even mixed with her favorite fruit (bananas).

She went through a couple weeks when she hated her carseat.  So frustrating for mommy!  I've heard that many babies go through this stage.  I mean, I would hate being strapped in to that thing, too.  There were a couple days when it was driving me nuts...I though, "what the heck?!  I've gotta get out of this apartment once in awhile!"  She loves going on runs with me in the stroller.  She looks around, talks, and then usually falls asleep.

She loves when we sing songs to her, especially "I'm bringing home a baby bumble bee, won't my mommy be so proud of me..."  It's a guaranteed smile or giggle.

She also loves this jumper that we bought her a couple weeks ago.  Mommy loves it, too!!  It helps when I need to have a 10 minute break for a shower or just a breather ;-)



Love love love our darling girl.