Matthew, when it comes to being your mommy, this past month has been both the best and the worst. It was the best because you are SO much fun to be with as you discover new sounds, body parts, and movements. It was the worst because your formerly great eating and sleeping habits went down the toilet and, thus, so did our ability to get much sleep (I blame growth spurts and germ season). I am very, very tired.
Like I said, you’ve grown in the past month. In the middle and end of December, we bumped you up to new clothes ranging between 6 to 12 months. (Baby clothes’ sizing is funky like that.) Whenever I go anywhere with you and people ask how old you are, they always reply with something to effect of, “Woah, big baby.” Yup.
1 month 5 months
As you can see by the above picture, this has been the month of the mouth. EVERYTHING goes in your mouth. Your hands, your toes, mommy’s hair, daddy’s nose, and pretty much anything that you can get your little lips close to. Oftentimes when I hold you, you put both of your hands on my finger and pull it straight to your mouth so that you can get to chomping on it. It hurts! You’ve got one strong jaw. It’s pretty entertaining to watch what you will try to get your gums on…including the paper on the exam table at the doctor’s office (it’s blurry because you were moving so fast!).
Speaking of doctor’s offices, you spent your final minutes of being 4-months-old by hanging out with Mommy, Daddy, and some doctors in the Emergency Room at Cottage Hospital. You had croup, and are currently in the process of getting over it. No fun for any of us.
This past month has also been the month of rolling! I predicted in last month’s post that you would start rolling shortly after your 4-month birthday. I was right! Eight days after you turned 4 months, you pushed your way over from tummy to back. I was away at work at the time, and Daddy texted me a picture of you from just a few seconds after you had made your accomplishment. I was so excited for you, but also super bummed that I had missed such a huge milestone. Two days later, though, you made up for it by log rolling yourself over from back to tummy while I was home with you and Daddy was at work. You just kind of tipped over onto your side and then, all of a sudden, you were on your tummy. You are now officially a mover and cannot be left unattended, otherwise you will roll yourself right under a table or some other strange place. These pictures were taken a few days after you started rolling, just about 30 seconds apart. Watch out, world!
Due to your newfound love of rolling, you are now a terrible sleeper. We can’t swaddle you anymore because it’s unsafe to do so, and that has definitely contributed to your constant night waking. However, you still don’t really like to be on your tummy even though you can roll both ways, so when you roll yourself over in your sleep, it wakes you up and you start crying. Awesome. I’ve come into your room in the middle of the night to find you with an arm or a leg sticking out through the crib slats on more than one occasion. It’s such a bummer that crib bumpers are a suffocation hazard, because they would be SO helpful at 12 and 2 and 3 and 6 in the morning when you roll into the side of the crib and wake yourself (and us) up.
Did I mention that I’m tired?
One thing that totally cracked us up last month was your unexplained obsession with the song “Row Row Row Your Boat.” It is a magical song and no other song even comes close. It doesn’t matter how loud you are screaming or how hard you are crying, by the time we get to “gently down the stream,” you are quiet and maybe even smiling. I can’t tell you how many rounds were sung on our never-ending car trip when we drove home for Christmas. You couldn’t stand being in your car seat, and that made what should have been a 6 hour drive turn into an 8 1/2 hour drive. It would have taken longer had it not been for your favorite song. Though it doesn’t work very well at keeping you calm, it does at least settle you down so that we can try to implement other methods of calming. We love to sing it with you even if you’re not fussy; you just love it so much! I’ve posted an example from a recent high school soccer game that we attended. (I’m not super comfortable with how much your head bobs when Daddy sings it with you, but that’s what Daddies are for, right?)
Your hand-eye coordination is increasing by the day, and you now attempt to reach for pretty much anything that catches your attention. You can now put a pacifier back in your mouth if it falls out (sometimes you try to put it in backwards, though) and you like to try and hold your own bottle!
I’ve begun to sit you in your high chair for a few minutes at a time, just to get you used to it because you’ll start eating solids next month! Wow. I can’t believe how fast you are growing up. Sometimes I’ll give you a rubber-tipped baby spoon to chew on (with maximum hands-on supervision so you don’t injure or gag yourself, of course), and other times I’ll give you an empty plastic sippy cup to play and experiment with. So fun for both of us!
Matthew, this has been the most fun month to be your mama. You have grown and changed so much, and when you’re not crying in pain or hunger, you are the happiest, silliest baby in the world. I love you so much and I can’t wait to see how you develop in this next month!
"om-Kitty"
/ January 9, 2012Christie, Dear: I just love your stories! Keep up the great work!!
Lots of Love, “Mom-Kitty”