Oh. Hello, there.
I'm a big fan of this age where babies start moving and interacting a lot more. I love the newborn cuddliness, but it's sometimes offset by the crying and all that. Though, I do miss when he'd just fall asleep on my chest. But as we're hitting five months with Atti, life's becoming a lot more fun.
I'm still doing that thing where I compare the boys even though I shouldn't. (Surprise.) The biggest thing that's apparent to me is how much of a difference that last few weeks in the womb can be. Thad was a week late, Atti 3 weeks early. So Thad had a whole extra month to bake, get stronger, and form those neural connections. Not that Atti is behind by any means... Thad hit everything extremely early (sitting at 4 months, crawling 6, walking around 9...) I love that Atti is doing things on a more timely schedule, so I can try to enjoy every stage.
That being said... he's very ready to get going. He's grown a lot in the past month. He's reaching and grabbing things, rolling onto his stomach all the time, looking like he'd really like to be chasing Thad around. He's found his screechy voice. He loves practicing sitting (that giant head is making it hard to stay upright), and the Exersaucer is is new favorite thing. Every time I look at a picture from right after he was born, I'm astonished because I can't remember him every being that tiny.
He's finally getting a little more acclimated to daycare, I think. He's still not napping great there (or anywhere except maybe his car seat when we're running around), but he's starting to be a little less needy. Hopefully one of these days he'll be able to put himself to sleep (and stay asleep).
The biggest thing that happened this month was that I took him to a pediatric dentist to get his tongue tie released. There's a long story there (that's on instagram), but he's been doing better since then, I think. I'm afraid there might be a little reattachment, but it's better than it was. We're trying to re-teach him how to suck properly, because he spent four months compensating and basically chewing on things. He's doing a bit better now, for sure.
- He hasn't been to the doctor in about a month (a record!) but at last check he was 13 pounds, 2 ounces, and 25 inches. He's definitely bigger than that now. I measured him at about 26 inches the other day.
- Size 2 diapers, but I think we'll make the switch to 3s pretty soon... he's getting too tall again. Mostly 3-6/6 month clothes still. Some 9 month and 6-12 months.
- He's drinking between 30 and 35 oz of formula most days. Still spitting up a ton, unfortunately. We've started oatmeal once a day. His reflex to push stuff out with his tongue is still around but we were able to do a tablespoon last night! We'll keep increasing and then do twice a day, then start avocado and veggies in another few weeks probably.
- Still waking up twice a night to eat. His longest stretch of sleep is still right around 5 hours. It's kind of taking its toll on me, because I'm usually only asleep the last 2 hours of that stretch. After that he sleeps another 3-4 hours, and eats, and then another 2-3 hours. In there he wakes up however many times just needing to be soothed. I can't let him cry much because he and T are sharing a room. I'll sleep again someday.
- Working on sitting. He's only 5th% for weight and somewhere around 60th for height, but his head is close to 80 or 90th% I think. So he is still working on getting those muscles strong enough to keep his head up.
- Most of the time when we put him down on his back he ends up on his stomach and will be content for 5-10 minutes and then just start yelling.
- He doesn't actually cry a whole ton anymore. He just has his whiny cry, his annoyed cry, his scared cry, and those mostly sound like yelling.
- Like I said, he's not a fan of naps. Anywhere from 3-5 a day, lasting from a half hour to 2 hours.
- We got him his own Doggy, which is actually a little lovey blanket with a dog head. He loves to chew on it, rub his face into it, everything. It helps him sleep.
- Constantly congested. BUT, so far he's been sick less often than Thad was.
- Also, like Thad, is a big smiler, but not a big laugher. Gotta work real hard for those giggles. Unless you're Thad. He thinks Thad's hilarious.
