5 months today (22 weeks tomorrow)

Wow, 5 months has flown by!  Parenting seems to be getting a bit easier in some aspects, but is so new in other ways.  For example, starting solids.  I don't know what I'm doing, but we're just going with it.

To start this post, I'd like to address sleep.  Julian was back to sleeping well at night with one feed at night.  He goes to bed at 8, feeds for 30 min somewhere in between 1-3, and then is up at 7am.  It's pretty great, but I've read in multiple places that he should be sleeping 10 hours straight.  I guess for my health, that would be awesome to sleep 8 hours in a row.  I haven't done that in a LONG time.

Well, I purchased the condensed version of the Baby Whisperer and read it all yesterday.  Yup.  I don't agree with a lot of things, but I'm not as angry as I was with Babywise.  Anyway, the pick em up, put em down method worked great for Julian's first nap this morning.  You are to wind down before sleep time (I'm not sure how to do this yet), place them in their crib awake, place your hand on their back and stay until they fall asleep (because I didn't start this method right away).  If he cries, pick him up and as soon as he stops, put him down again.  If he cries while lowering him, put him all the way down and then pick him up.  There are a lot more details, but I only had to pick him up 3 times.  I heard it can be 100 times the first day, 50 the next and by the 4th, they won't need to be picked up.  There is no crying it out, but there will be crying.

One thing that I learned and wish I would have known earlier is the "dream feed".  You put baby down at bedtime and then get him up at 10 or 11pm, without waking him, and feed him to fill his belly so he can sleep.  Well, it might have worked, but I drank a lot of water, so Julian leaked through his diaper at 3:30, so I changed him and fed him.  I will continue this dream feed though since it didn't wake him up.

The thing that I'm not sure I can get to is a 4 hour schedule.  They want me to feed him every 4 hours and go down for two long naps.  I just pushed his feedings back to 2.5 hours and that was hard.  We'll see if this happens, but I'm not going to drive myself crazy with it.  I will try to do the longer naps.

OH!  He reaches out for us to pick him up and then snuggles.  He squeezes my neck and nestles in and I melt!  I love this cuddler.

Tricks:
He just started babbling consonants. Ps and Bs are the big ones and I swear he is saying "poop".  I guess I say that a lot.  What a great first word.  He tries hard with mama and says the syllables of "I love you" with a big smile on his face.

He will not jump in his johnny jump-up or his activity center, but stands flat footed the entire time until he's tired.  I feel this kid will not want to crawl, so I might make an obstacle course like my friend did so he can learn how to crawl before walking.  I read that crawling is good for brain development.

After a few weeks of boycotting any rolling over, I have a wild man on my hand who is rolling all which ways crazily.  He has flung himself off his blankets and activity mat onto the wood floor a couple of times.  I guess his mama was in denial that he's growing so fast.  I now spread the blankets out wide for the roly poly.

He's sitting up well on the floor, but the bumbo still makes him mad after about 5-10 min.  I ordered the recall seat belt because I thought he was going to fling himself out of it.  He gets mad quickly and arches his back instantaneously and almost flips out.  I don't need a skull fracture on my hands.

Julian is so happy and has been giggling up a storm for no reason.  He just lies/sits looking at me and starts giggling without me doing anything.  It cracks me up.

He loves solids!  He abused Dan's hands by pinching and grabbing them for more food.  He cries for more and we probably gave him too much last night, but he didn't get sick.

Bad trick:

He has separation anxiety really bad.  He has to see me at all times or he cries.  I try to sing or talk to him every time I leave the room, but it doesn't work.  I'll quote his favorite book or sing the wheels on the bus and that holds him to a whimper.  Thankfully he doesn't mind being with Dan, but otherwise he has to see me.

We have a strong-willed one.  Who would have guessed with Dan and me as his parents?  Uggghh.  Yes, he starts to scream as soon as he doesn't get his way.  I'm not excited about having to discipline him, but for now I have to find creative ways to distract him.  That's difficult when he want to suck on a soapy wash cloth in the bath and throws a fit if he can't have it.  I found that getting it out of his site and having him focus on a bath toy works, but I have to bring the wash cloth back and use it.  Fun times.

1st time with solids 9-12-12

5 months old

long legs

sticking out his tongue