5 Months Old!

First of all, that kid up there? CUTEST. THING. EVER. I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I’ve stared at that picture again and again over the past couple of days. That smile isn’t just reserved for milk-drunk comas anymore!

 

I was thinking about A’s birth the other day, and it hit me what a crazy amazing miracle it all was. At the time I was just so engrossed in what was happening, and was just taking it all in one moment at a time. Then we were thrown into the insanity that is having a newborn in the house, and then the subsequent keeping up with life that followed. Now we’re starting to get a teeny bit of regularity back to our lives and I actually am able to reflect on things like his birth and how amazing it was that the VBAC happened at all. Looking back it was all just so calm. And not necessarily easy, but easier than I imagined it would be.

 

And I remember things like when he came out how I marveled at his bushy little eyebrows, and how I started singing to him, and how it was just so incredible to hold him in my arms…but the vernix just feels kind of icky. But awesome…but gross. He was crying and beautiful, and I didn’t realize how much of it I was soaking in at the time, but I’m so thankful that I can recall it now.

 

Five months has flown by, even faster than it did with W, and I just can’t believe that in another short month he’ll be halfway to a full year. We are truly blessed!

So let’s see…when we were at month 4 we were still having sleep issues. He would nap just fine in his crib, but at night he wouldn’t go to sleep in his crib and we were constantly moving him from his crib to his rock and play that was set up in our room every night. I was trying to nurse him to sleep, and then would end up rocking him to sleep again a few hours later. It was really starting to wear on us, but I stuck it out to see if change would just happen on its own.

 

It didn’t.

 

After talking to our doctor and looking back at how we handled it all with W, we decided to let A cry it out. I realize that method is frowned upon, but it’s not like we just let him cry til he was sick or never went up to check on him. It took a few hours, and I would go up every so often to sing and rub his tummy, but after a night we were already all having a much higher quality of sleep. We also saw a big jump in A’s development immediately after, and now if we stick around in his room while he’s trying to fall asleep he gets annoyed. All that to say that sleep seems to have improved for all of us, and I’m super thankful. Now going to knock on wood…

 

Other goings on with this little man: he loves to scream for no reason other than just to see how loud he can get. He’ll screech and then get a huge gummy smile on his face when we all turn around to see what the commotion is about. He loves the exersaucer and Johnny Jump-Up, but nothing beats a clean towel on the ground with some toys for him to reach for. Just Saturday he started to push up a little more and tried to push up on his hands and knees for the first time. Not successfully, but he’s trying!

I mentioned it in the 4-month post, but two kids is super hard work. I’m loving that we’re starting to get a little more routine in our life, that the weather is cooling down (because we NEED to get outside and run out some energy), that Whole30 is almost over (more on that tomorrow), and that I still get some of those sweet snuggles pictured above. These kids mean the world to me, and every time I get frustrated about not being able to do more work-wise in this current season, I can’t help but be reminded that this is the highest calling in my life and that it’s an honor to be the mother of these two boys. They amaze me every day, and I can’t wait to see the men that they grow into!