five months

Our baby girl is five months old today!  She is so much fun and I feel like her personality has really started blossoming lately.  She smiles at everything now (I know I've said that before but now...for real.)  We took our family pictures on November 16 and she was a little under the weather so it was hard to make her smile.  The next day though, I swear she started smiling at everything.  It's not just "costco" and "jamjams" anymore.  She babbles all the time to herself in the car and is starting to really be able to shriek loudly.

She won't have an official weigh in this month but we think she's between 16-17 pounds.  She has been fighting a cold almost the entire month.  It started as some sneezing...developed into a cough...and now it seems to slowly be getting a little better.  Her hair JUST started getting a little fuzzier and longer the past couple of days. Her eyes are now a dark gray color and this past month her eyelashes have gotten a good bit longer.  We have some days with tons of drool and some days with not much drool.  She's definitely in the process of teething but doesn't have any pushing through just yet.

Sleep this month has been pretty consistent until this past weekend.  There weren't many nights that she didn't wake up at least once...but since Saturday, she has actually been sleeping through the night again.   I think the stuffy nose/cough/skills development has had a lot to do with her not sleeping well.  I introduced her to a lovey around Thanksgiving and I often find it tucked under her arm in the morning when I wake her up.  a.d.o.r.a.b.l.e.  We're totally done with the swaddle now that she's sleeping on her stomach so she's been sleeping with a blanket this month.

No issues in the eating department.  Allie is still eating often and well.  Pumping at work is difficult and I have to pull from my freezer stash daily.  I often worry about how much longer we'll be able to keep it up.  We haven't started solids yet but we will soon.  We're also really wanting to move on to something different than Dr. Brown's bottles.  We're sick of washing so many bottle parts every night.  I don't know whether we should just stick it out a little longer and then introduce a sippy cup or just buy all new bottles that she may or may not like.

Clothing-wise, Allison is wearing 6 month pjs, 6-12 month pants, and a mix of 3-6, and 6-12 month onesies.  She seems to be growing a lot taller lately.  A lot of dresses that we have for her that are 3-6 are way too short.  We moved her up to size 3 diapers in the middle of the month.

We started laying out a giant picnic blanket in the living room this month for Allie to play around on.  It's pretty much the best thing ever.  She spits up quite often so once the blanket gets a little dirty, we toss it in the wash.  Much easier than cleaning carpet and she has a lot more space to roam.  She started crawling on November 19 at 18 weeks old.  Now she can push herself into a plank position and is getting quicker at moving around.  It's only a matter of time before she gets her knees under her and really starts moving.  She finally rolled to the right on December 1.  She reaches for anything and everything.  "Out of reach" is a thing of the past...if she wants it, she's gonna get it.

Everything is still going well with daycare.  The other baby she's with can sit up and touch her toes so it's really interesting to see how they're developing differently.  I'm convinced that Allie can't do either because of her chunkiness.  She can't reach her toes over her belly and she can't sit up because she's so heavy up top.  But she is strong and gets where she wants to go for sure.  She can sit up if I position her to where she's bent over.  It doesn't look comfortable though so I don't leave her like that long.  Maybe that will be what she masters in month six.  She's still loving standing and she can actually stand unassisted if she's holding on to something.

As for me, I'm still losing fist-fulls of hair.  Working has been going well and I'm enjoying having somewhere to be every day.  I still feel a tug every now and then to be at home but ultimately, I think this is the right choice for now.