5 Months

Emma you are five months old!

You weigh almost 17 pounds. You weighed 16.13 this past Monday. I never measure you, but I'm pretty sure you've grown this month. I think you're going to have your Daddy's long torso because all of the 3-6 month shirts are short on you!

You wear 3-6 month clothes and some 6 month clothes. You still wear a size 1 shoe, although we can get away with a size 2.

You are still wearing size 2 diapers.

You're still nursing and getting a bottle maybe once a week, if that. Since I've been home with you the shield is almost no longer needed. You've been a very distracted eater lately, so sometimes I'll use the shield just to make sure you're done. You've also become a very efficient eater. Most of your feedings are about 20 minutes. Once or twice a day you'll go for longer, but no more than 45. It kind of has me worried that you're not getting enough or that my supply is going to change, but so far it's been fine. We still go to the breastfeeding support group and you are definitely gaining weight, so I'm trying not to be so paranoid, even though I still meticulously record every feeding!

You're still doing some really good stretches of sleep, but not consistently yet. You'll have maybe 2-3 nights of 8 or more hours, and then go back to a couple of nights of 5-6 hours. I'm still fine with it and looking at a 12 hour stretch, which is normally what you sleep, you only wake up 1-2 times. Surprisingly I function pretty well with a solid 5 hour stretch of sleep. Naps are a different story. You get tired at the same times every day, but don't seem to want to sleep longer than 30 minutes, so sometimes I let you sleep on me in the afternoon if I can tell that you need sleep. And you can definitely tell! You get cranky and your poor little eyes get dark underneath. I love when you sleep on me and you'll usually sleep for 1-2 hours.

You still need the reflux medicine, but only once every 2 days. I know that it seems like nothing and why would you still need it, but you do. If you go longer than 2 days without it you'll start

to do the gagging and swallowing thing. Hopefully by next month you won't need it at all!

I've been thinking you've been teething for awhile, but I still don't feel anything. You drool alot and put everything in your mouth, but you've never been fussy for no reason. Hopefully, like with your shots, teething won't bother you much.

Since you learned to roll you've been loving floor time! We still do lots of floor time before bath. Your other favorite activity is swinging in your swings. You're still not loving the Bumbo like you used to. Although, you played with cousin Anthony's Bumbo-type exersaucer toy and you really liked that. I'm just thinking that you need more entertainment and the Bumbo tray doesn't hold much. Plus you like to knock all the toys off!

You haven't been talking as much as you used to, but you're still experimenting with your voice. Which really means seeing how loud you can get! If I didn't know so much about child development I would be worried that you seemed to regress with your talking, but I know that babies will regress with some skills while they're learning new ones. For you, learning to roll=not talking as much!

You've become a grabbing machine with those hands of yours! Your favorite things to grab are our faces, phones, the sheets or burp cloths and paper! You've really started to explore your toys more, especially by putting things in your mouth. You also like to hit and rattle things, but you're not quite banging things.

Developmentally you're still right on track or above in all areas of development except adaptive skills. Now you're technically 2 months behind, but the testing tool I'm using is way outdated. It still follows the idea of starting solids at 4 months, which is why you're behind. I've decided to wait until 6 months to start anything, unless you really start to show signs of wanting food. Right now you just try to touch our food, but that's it.

I've been loving singing to you and I think you like it to! You'll usuallly give me a little smile when I start to sing "You Are My Sunshine." Your Daddy has been loving making you laugh! You're such a happy baby! You've also become really social, smiling at pretty much anyone who talks to you!

Luckily you haven't gotten tired of our kisses because your Daddy and I require about a 1,000 a day! We love you so much!