Five Months

At five months, Dear Son is about to pop out of his 6-9 month clothing. Note how it is pulling in the crotch and the pants legs are not quite long enough. He's wearing a 12 month snap-crotch t-shirt, which seems to fit him about right in the length, but a bit long in the arms.

I'm not sure what he was saying when I snapped this picture, but I'm pretty sure it was important at the time.

As for five month accomplishments, we seem to be going backward in some areas. Whereas a month ago he was sleeping through the night or only having one early morning awakening at 4 am or later, he has recently been waking up hungry at midnight and then every three hours again. He practically did better than that as a newborn. The past couple nights it's been 2:30 am and 5:30 am. I couldn't decide if that meant it was time to start solids, as he had also been stretching out his daytime feedings to 4 and 4 1/2 hours. I also didn't know if the excitement of having Grandpa and Grandma M here for a week threw him off a bit, or if he had teeth coming in (nothing is visible yet). At any rate, after multiple nights in a row of getting up every three hours once again, I decided it was time to go ahead with the solids. At least that makes me feel like I have the power to try SOMETHING!

Incidentally, Dear Son is not thrilled with the new menu. I've tried rice cereal for four days now, and he makes a most interesting grimace when I manage to make it through the flailing arms with enough on the spoon to get it into his mouth. Other times he clams up tighter than Fort Knox, and there's no breaking in. Sigh. I can't decide whether to try another grain cereal next or something like bananas, but tomorrow will be day five, so it's time to try something new for the next four days. I seem to remember Dear Daughter not having any great problems with starting her cereals. I started her at 5 1/2 months, but she was not waking up in the night more frequently or anything. I just decided it was time. In fact, by this time, Dear Daughter was regular as clockwork in her sleeping, going down by 8:30-9:00 pm and sleeping until 4:00 - 4:30 am.

The way to survive the sleep-deprived jags, I've learned, is just to remember that "This too, shall pass!" and quite quickly in the scheme of things, I might note as I look onto Dear Daughter and wonder how she made it so quickly to becoming "almost three"! Sheesh!

Dear Son is also getting quite good at grabbing things and putting them in his mouth and continues to practice his rolling skills. He still loves to sleep on his tummy against the far side of his crib. He occaisionally gets his arm caught between the mattress and the crib rail and I have to go "rescue" him. He continues to be as sweet natured as can be, still doing an awesome job of going to sleep without any big dramatic displays. I still shake my head in disbelief when I lie him down in his crib and walk away with nary a peep before he goes to sleep. As long as he has his thumb all is well in his world--and mine too, for that matter!