5 months old!

5 months, 2 days old

This month has been my favorite yet. Barrett is becoming such a fun kid and his personality has started to come out. I love it. I just wish I had more time with him. During the week, we barely get an hour at night before he's off to bed and that is just not enough. This is what we've been up to:



Sleep: Can I get a Hallelujah!? Two weeks ago, we succumbed to a bit of sleep training with the kiddo. It was a weekend that we were home with no plans and it was time. Prior to this, he was mostly nursing to sleep and I knew that we needed to nip that in the butt. We decided to go with the Ferber method and started crying it out. The quick jist is that we lay him down awake and he learns to soothe himself to sleep. That first night was a BLAST. (NOT!) Joe and I sat in the living room while he screamed his head off for an hour and 10 minutes. We would go into his room at 5 minute increments and soothe him. After that hour and 10 minutes, Joe had enough and got him out of bed and rocked him for 20 minutes before he passed out from complete exhaustion. It was so sad but he slept amazing that night.



We've been incredibly lucky because from this point on, he started to put himself to sleep with very little trouble during both naps and bed time. This last weekend was a bit of a hiccup because we were in Pontiac and he was unsure of where he was but overall he has been fantastic. In addition, he is no longer waking numerous times a night! He goes to sleep anywhere from 6:30 and 7:30 at night, always wakes anywhere from 4:00 to 4:30 and then back asleep until 6:30am. It's like clockwork. I can't tell you how awesome that is. But honestly, the best thing is that I can lay him in bed, wide awake and completely happy and within 15 minutes, he's asleep with hardly a peep. I used to have to hold him for an hour before he was in a deep enough sleep that he would let me lay him in bed. That made it hard to accomplish anything at night!

So yeah, sleep rules! (Unfortunately, I now get to obsess over other things.)

Edited to add: Barrett slept from 7:10pm to 6:40am straight last night! It was a fabulous 5 month birthday present for mom!



Food: Bubs has just started taking 7 oz bottles every 3 hours and nurses once in the morning, once before bed and once in the middle of the night (except for last night!). I've decided to start introducing solids next weekend so we have that to look forward to. This weekend I'm planning on making a couple batches of homemade purees to be frozen for when we get to that point.



Kiddo is still a bit of a pipsqueak. We don't have a well visit with the pediatrician this month so I'm not sure on his measurements. I'm guessing he's holding steady in the 14 pound range which is about 10%. Teeny but strong. He's in 3-6 month and 6 month onsies and sleepers and even getting into some of this 6-12 month stuff. He still swims in his pants and I'm getting antsy to bust out almost an entire drawer full of too big pairs. His torso is the long part of him and his little legs are so short. He's in Size 2 diapers and I'm not ready for him to move up (luckily it will be a bit) because then we lose the wetness indicator. Best.thing.ever.



No major update on the teething front. I keep thinking that it's impossible for this kid to put anything else in his mouth. Toys, fingers (his and others), books, paper, rags, bibs, clothes, car seat straps, camera straps, and on and on.



My favorite time of day with him is in the mornings. I know it's not a new thing for babies to be happy in the mornings but Monkey is so fun when he wakes up. During the week, he hangs out in the bathroom while I get ready and he squeals and shrieks like no other. He sure likes to have his own little conversations. Also, he is mesmerized by the hair dryer. He goes completely limp and stares when I turn it on. I'm getting it on video for sure.


One of the greatest things this month has been an abundance of smiles for Joe and I. Mister is so enthralled with us. He went through a little phase last week where he was pretty obsessed with me. Joe would be all up in his face and he would have nothing to do with it. The second I say something to him he grins and grins. (love him!) This week though, he is loving on daddy. Just tonight, Joe was reading him his book before bed and instead of looking at the papers, Bubs just kept looking up at Joe. They are buddies.



This month, Bubba is also obsessed with clapping. I'm not sure if it's the clapping or the overzealous nature at which we clap for him. Either way, we love it. A recent development this month is that he can hold his own bottle. It's so super cute too. We have to set it right but overall he can control it while he eats. It's funny to watch the nipple come out of his mouth because instead of moving the bottle to him, he moves his head to the bottle. He is growing so fast!

He's also such a grabby kid. We cannot change his diaper without him grabbing at our arms, trying to play with us. He does the same thing when he's nursing. So funny.

(Re-reading this makes me realize we need to get all this stuff on video.)



I won't sugar coat this whole post because there are some not so great qualities of the kiddo. He spits up like no other still. The old cloth diapers that we use for burp rags are a godsend. Unfortunately, he also is a needy, whiney little butthead. He wants someone to entertain him and be up in his face at.all.times. I'm waiting for this phase to pass.

That's B at 5 months in a nutshell. The bestest kid there ever was.