5 Months old

What a much happier baby!!!
 

Amber is now 5 months old! She is a delight to interact with, as she smiles all the time!
She also coos and bables non stop and I just love it. WIth Nathan, it took a dog and pony show to make him smile so I am really enjoying her smiling ease!

She has a favorite toy, it is a little doll with a rattle on it, and she just lights up and smiles/coos every time she sees the doll!
SHe has started to roll over from stomach to back (ok, she has only done it once but it counts!)
 

  

She is still on a special formula for her colic and lactose intolerance. It is so expensive but she has not been colicky since we started it. She has been on it for over a month and we are going to try a soy formula soon. I sure hope she grows out of her lactose intolerance because 80% of my diet and the way we cook is dairy! (Ok, 80% is an exaggeration!)

The Nutramigin formula is causing her bad diarrhea and her poor bottom has been red for over a month.
We started her on rice a few weeks ago and she is not a huge fan. She will eat it sometimes and make a huge mess as she tries to jam her fist into her mouth after everybite. Other times she will just cry when I attempt to feed it to her. I am sure she will get the hang of it soon.



 

 



 

I have mentioned she is happy during the day, but nights are still rough.

Every night is different. Some nights she will go 3-4 hours without waking up and other nights it is every 1-2 hours. I have made some progress because she is not having to be put in the swing any more and some nights she will go back to sleep with just a few minutes of patting.

 

Every night is different but I try to put her to bed between 8-8:30 after giving her a bottle. She then will sometimes wake up around 11 or 12. I do not feed her until 1am so I just pat her until she falls back asleep. The last few nights patting has not cut it so I have ended up rocking her and falling asleep in the chair until 1am. She goes back to sleep after her bottle at 1am and then is up at 4am but we are not feeding her until 5am so it is more patting or rocking until 5. Then she will go back to sleep until 7 or so.

Some nights she is up every 1 hour or so just crying and other nights she will sleep from 1am to 5am without waking up.

 

We tried the cry it out method and it did not work for our family. I think it is a good method but I also think you have to find a method that you are comfortable with in order to stick with it.

I was surprised I did not like this. I was so tired of getting up so often I was ready to just turn off the monitor and let her scream, but I guess I am more of a softy than I thought. Plus she was waking Nathan up after 2 hours of straight crying and then he was cranky because he was not sleeping good.

We are now just trying to space her feeds in the middle of the night and are kinda stuck at 1am and 5am.

 

It really is hard on me to still be getting up 3 plus times a night at 5 months old. Nathan was sleeping through the night by 9 weeks, so this is all uncharted water for us.

I am very dependent on sleep and have noticed a negative difference in myself these past few months.

I know "This too shall pass" but it is quite hard on us right now. We both do not function well without good sleep and it is so easy to take it out on each other at 4am!

 



 

I am so thankful that she is a happy baby and smiles all the time! It makes the nights more manageable!

She loves her brother! She loves to watch him and smile at him. Nathan still does not interact with her much on his own.  He will give her a hug if I ask him to but usually just ignores her. . He did laugh at her for the first time the other night. She let out a big burp and he thought it was so funny!

I have caught him squeezing her a few times. He will just walk up to her and squeeze her leg or foot. He gets a time out for that and hopefully it will not escalate to hitting or anything.

I am looking forward to the day when they can play and interact with each other

 

It is hard to believe it has been 5 months but at the same time it has been a long 5 months.

We are very thankful for her and that she is healthy. I look forward to watching her grow and learn!