Garrett - 6 Months Old

Diapers

Rocking the size 3’s.  His weight gain has slowed down significantly so we’ll probably be in size 3’s for a while.

Shoe Size

He doesn’t wear shoes yet so I have no idea!

Clothes

Mostly 6 month clothes now, though we are still in 3-6 month sleepers.  I’ve packed up all of his newborn and 3 month clothes to give away.  I’ll have to write a whole separate blog about this, but instead of trying to consign their clothes, I am donating them to an organization called Olivia’s House.  I read a book called “Delivered” about a woman’s journey through addiction to drugs, her life of prostitution and her lack of care for the numerous children she gave birth to during the process (it wasn’t an easy book to read).  But during the birth of baby #4, this woman heard the voice of God and her entire life changed at that moment.  She was able to keep her baby and raise her while living in Olivia’s House.  God completely changed her life and she was able to kick all of her bad habits and spend the rest of her life preaching about Jesus to any and everyone that would listen.  She described her time at Olivia’s House in the book and lots of people trying to get clean live there with their children but they don’t provide baby clothes so lots of the kids wear dirty clothes and they just don’t have many pairs of clothes.  So instead of getting a small amount of money that, let’s be honest…I don’t truly need, I’m giving the kids clothes to these women so that their babies can have some clean clothes.

Feeding

We did it!  We made it 6 months off of breastmilk (with a few formula bottles during those first months when he woke in the middle of the night).  Unfortunately, my sweet baby can no longer thrive off of only breastmilk.  He needs iron and therefore needs to begin eating cereal, his first form of solids.  We started the oatmeal cereal last Friday (24th).  With Carter I didn’t know what to expect and followed the instructions to a “T” on how to make it.  It was very runny and soooooo hard for Carter to eat.  It also took some patience for me because I didn’t understand why he had such a hard time swallowing food.  Well I get it now and the experience with Garrett was exactly how I expected it to go.  I didn’t follow the instructions on the box this time (because when I do-it’s too soupy) so the consistency was just right.  I considered his first time a success because he grabbed at the spoon to get more food, but unfortunately, he wore more of it than went into his mouth, which I expected.  Think about it-they have been either sucking a bottle or nursing for 6 months.  He’s not going to just magically understand a spoon overnight.  By day 3, he was still wearing a lot of the food, but he was also actually eating it.  He still does the tongue thrust because that’s what he’s use to doing when he nurses, but he’s gotten a little better at it each day since we started.  I will probably do just one meal of cereal (the breakfast meal around 8:30/9am) for another week and then I will move up to feeding him cereal two/three times a day.  Once he does really well with that, then I will introduce the orange/yellow veggies.

Schedule

No big changes to his schedule.  He’s still on a 4 hour schedule which means he eats, then stays awake for about an hour and a half and then sleeps for about 2 and a half hours before we have to wake him up to start it all over again.  An hour and a half is about as long as I can get him to stay up without getting fussy.  He can make it longer if we are out and about doing things, but if we’re at home he just gets bored too fast and would rather go to sleep.

Sleep

This kid y’all.  He sleeps A TON.  He absolutely loves sleeping.  More than Carter did and Carter loved it too!  He very rarely wakes up on his own.  We have to wake him up every single morning and after about 98% of his naps.  Sometimes he will wake up on his own and I will see him on the video monitor.  He’ll lift his head up and look around as if saying to himself “I’m up…wait…the lights are still off…no one is in here….guess I’m supposed to still be asleep….alrighty then” and then he lays his head back down and goes back to sleep.  It’s hilarious.  People look at me like I’m crazy when I say that Garrett’s only awake for about 5-6 hours a day.  I get that look that says “really??  I mean…is something wrong with him?!?!”  To answer that question-no, nothing is wrong with him.  The pediatrician said that some babies just need more sleep than others.  On top of that, Garrett is still hitting milestones faster than average, so obviously he’s taking full advantage of those 5-6 hours!  And we are so thankful to have such a HAPPY baby when he wakes up.  He doesn’t scream for food.  When we walk in there he usually wakes up and just looks at us and laughs.  He also frequently gets up on all fours and starts rocking like he’s trying to go somewhere. 

Waketime

We still like spending time outside during waketimes, but haven’t been able to do it much the past couple of weeks because it’s been raining a ton here.  But he still likes Baby Einstein DVDs, his music playmat and he’s been spending some time in a Johnny Jumper that’s connected to one of our doorways in our house as well as spending time in his exersaucer.  I’ve been working with him a lot on sitting up and he’s getting SOOOOOO good at it!  Carter was sitting up extremely well on his own by 6 months and Garrett is right there with him.  I was expecting it to take him a bit longer than it has because his head is so much bigger than Carter’s was and he has a lot more weight on him than Carter did, therefore a lot more weight to hold upright while sitting up.  But he was only about a week or two behind big brother so he’s doing really well with it.  He can probably go up to three or four minutes without falling over.  But I still am not at a point where I will leave him in a room unattended while he’s sitting up.

Mother’s Day Out

Summer school for both kids starts the first week of June.  They will go three days a week from 9-1pm.  Carter is fine with this…he’s been doing MDO for years at these hours.  But this will be Garrett’s first time at school.  He’s been in the nursery before on Sundays at church, but this will be his first time going for that long too.  He struggles with falling asleep without being in a bed in a dark room so we’ll see how he does with sleep.  If they can get him to take at least one quick 20-30 minute nap I will call it a win.  He gets fussy when he’s tired, but the good thing about him is that even though he takes 2.5 hour naps at home, he doesn’t require one that long to be in a good mood.  If he can take a quick 20 minute catnap, he thinks it’s been 2 hours and he’s fine.

And as you can see in the pictures above, he’s really aware of Gizmo now and likes watching her and trying to touch her.

Statistics

His 6 month appointment was on his actual birthday, April 27th.  His head is still big, but not as big as it has been.  It’s been consistently in 90th percentile since birth but it’s down to 70th percentile now.  He’s about 25 3/4 inches long which is the 25th percentile and weighs 17lbs, 8oz which is 50th percentile.  So overall, the reason he looks fat, is because he’s short, not because he’s actually fat.  I agree that he is definitely short, but I don’t think he’s in the 25th percentile and neither does Justin.  The way they measure these babies is so jacked up and as I was watching her mark the paper to measure him I almost said something but decided against it.  Garrett is really a little over 26 inches and I don’t know what percentile that is, but it’s not 25th (at this age, a mere 1/4 inch can shoot you up in the percentiles a lot...you’d be surprised!).  But yes, he is definitely short.  I was expecting higher than 50th percentile on weight too.  He is also NOT 17lbs, 8oz.  The timing of the appointment was immediately after drinking a 7oz bottle and eating some cereal.  I weighed him the other day when he woke up before he ate anything and he was 17lbs even.  So this likely puts him a little less than 50th percentile in weight.  Regardless, his weight is slowing down because as he gets older he’s getting more active.  He’s sitting up all the time and is constantly bouncing in our laps and in swings and toys so he’s working those muscles and burning calories now.  He looks like a Michelin baby (see picture below) because he’s just not quite proportional yet with his height but Dr. D says that is totally normal and that babies grow at their own rate.

Other things noted during the doctor’s appointment:

• Baby boy has a minor cold so doc told me to go get some baby Zyrtec for him.  I’m hoping it clears it up and that he’s not developing allergies.
• He still has a mild case of eczema.  Carter never had this so it’s new to me.  I’ve tried using Aveeno products because they’re supposed to be best on sensitive skin but I swear there’s something in it he’s allergic to because everytime I’ve used the Aveeno lotion on him it makes him break out.  So I’m throwing it out.  We’re going to keep using hydrocortisone and aquaphor.
• There’s one spot on his tummy that we think is just some eczema, but doc said it also looks a little like ringworm.  So I’m going to use the hydrocortisone for a few days and if it’s not better then we’ll call in a prescription for ringworm medicine.  However, both doc and me think it’s just eczema.
• He got shots as always.  I teared up this time though.  I don’t know why, but when Garrett cries it makes me cry.  Maybe because he NEVER cries.  He’s more of a whiner and grunter than a crier.  So when I see those tears it just breaks me in two.
• Next appointment isn’t until 9 months.  My boy is growing up too fast y’all!!!

Abilities

Like I mentioned above, the big accomplishment in the last month was the ability to sit up unassisted.  He can sit up for several minutes on his own without falling over, however I still wouldn’t call him a “master” at it just yet.  I would never leave him sitting up in one room while I’m in another room.  It’s gonna take some time for me to be comfortable doing that!  He’s also been getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth.  See, Garrett tends to be about a week or two behind on doing things when big brother did them.  The rocking on his knees, however, he did way before big brother did.  Carter didn’t rock on all fours until he was close to 7 months old and Garrett does it almost every morning when he wakes up.  Both boys started out just doing it in their cribs and eventually did it when they were just laying on the floor.  This is the move that is the prerequisite to crawling, so Garrett may not be too far off from crawling!  He is also showing a HUGE interest in standing up.  He loves it when you help him stand up in your lap or on the floor.  He’s also grabbing at stuff constantly.  He adores touching my face for some reason.

Teething

These teeth are going to be the death of me!!!!  I was sure they’d be in by now but not so much.  Overall, he’s honestly not that fussy, but he is just CONSTANTLY drooling and it’s driving me bonkers!!!

Discipline

Again, definitely not there yet!

Other Notable Things

Likes

• Sleeping
• Car rides
• Pull toys that are connected to his carseat.  He really likes pulling them to make noise!
• Watching brother play outside.
• Watching Gizmo.
• Being outside when it’s warm.  He prefers to sit in the shade because he doesn’t like sunlight in his eyes, but he does enjoy being outside.
• Seeing himself in a mirror
• When daddy plays peek-a-boo with him
• When I roll my tongue-it makes him laugh hysterically!
• Sucking on his fingers – he prefers the index and middle finger of his right hand and as weird as this sounds, he prefers to suck them upside down.  See below picture for what I mean.  Brother was a thumb sucker but this kid refuses the thumb.  He wants two fingers instead!

• The toy that is connected to his crib.  It lights up and plays lullabies for a few minutes and then it turns itself off.  We usually turn it on right when we put him down for a nap and he stares at it for a while before falling asleep.  Now that he’s sitting up really well, I will sit him up next to the toy and he will grab at it to try to play with it.
• Baby Einstein DVD’s – preferably one with land animals on it (he’s not a fan of the ocean one for some reason-which was Carter’s favorite one!)
• Still obsessed with almost anything on the Baby First channel, particularly Vocabu-Larry (it’s a bird named Larry that spells words…get it??)

Dislikes

• Sun in his eyes
• Being kept awake for too long
• Teething
• Loud noises-this is a new one.  If a loud noise startles him unexpectedly he will cry…like actual tears.  Justin sneezed one day and Garrett started bawling.  But if he expects the loud noise it doesn’t bother him…like vacuuming.  He’s fine with it because he sees me getting the vacuum out so he knows it’s going to make noise.
• Getting bored with one activity-just like his brother did when he was this age, he likes to change up his activities every 15 minutes or so unless it’s a Baby Einstein DVD.  He can usually sit through a whole 25-30 minute DVD pretty easily.
• Missing nap.  It’s when he gets the fussiest.  If he can’t have his nap in his crib we try to rock him until he falls asleep.  Eventually it will work, but it takes FOREVER.  He wants to be in his own bed.
• A pacifier.  Just like brother, this kid won’t take a pacifier!  I love it because I don’t have to worry that he will lose it in the middle of the night and start crying because he needs it to sleep.  This is why I was glad Carter was a thumb sucker.  I got worried about when Carter would stop sucking his thumb (upside of the pacifier is that you can take it away-you can’t exactly cut their thumb off) but around age 2ish, he stopped all on his own and hasn’t done it since.  So hopefully if Garrett becomes a big finger sucker, he will drop it on his own before I have to take drastic measures!
• Shots (because who likes those?!?!)

5 Ways Modern Parenting Is In Crisis

I saw this article floating around facebook a super long time ago and I was in love with it.  I wrote out this whole blog as a draft but never posted it and even completely forgot about it.  I just now found it and remembered why I loved the article and decided that even though it’s a whopping year after the article came out, I wanted to post about it anyway because I believe in it that much.  I’m pretty big into researching parenting.  I feel like I’ve read so many books on helpful ways to raise kids to be respectful, obeying and have well tempered manners.  Some of them I agree with, some of them I don’t.  Some of the tips have worked WONDERS for me, some of them haven’t.  But when I read this article, I was amazed.  This woman literally summed up everything in 5 key points. 

Please keep in mind that as I discuss these things, you may not agree with them.  That’s totally fine.  I’m not writing this to have the final say on how to parent.  God knows I am still researching and reading trying to find out everything I can to raise good Christian boys.  But I know that when I read this, it encouraged me to change a couple of things that I was doing wrong and it also encouraged me to keep doing the things I was already doing.  To see the article yourself, you can click here.

1)  Parents have a fear of their children. The woman gives an example of a toddler that has a sippy cup of milk in a certain cup and throws a fit because they want a different cup.  The parent that fears their child takes the original cup, goes to get another cup and pours the milk into the new cup.  Now this is one I was doing prior to reading this article.  Carter used to be specific when it comes to bowls (he doesn’t care about cups), but sometimes he wants his cereal in the blue bowl instead of the green or yellow bowl.  If it wasn’t a hassle to me, I just obliged what he wanted to keep from having a meltdown.  As the British author of the article says, “RUBBISH!”. 

You just committed a parenting fail.  You feared your toddler was going to have a temper tantrum over something stupid, so you gave in.  If we keep doing this, it will only teach our children that we fear their temper tantrums, therefore, they will throw them in order to get what they want.  Before having kids, when I saw a child throwing a temper tantrum in the grocery aisle because mom wouldn’t buy them M&M’s, I thought to myself “good lord woman-buy the kid some M&M’s to shut him up!”.  Nowadays, I look at the mom that won’t give-in to their child’s tantrums and say “good job mom-hold your ground!  Let him know you’re boss and you make the rules!”.  Now that’s not to say that you should pick your battles with kids.  You totally should because otherwise your kid will cry and feel unloved 24/7.  Here’s how I do that with Carter.  Going with the cereal bowl example, I changed my pattern to asking Carter which bowl he wanted BEFORE I poured the cereal.  He could choose green or blue.  If he said blue, I’d pour the cereal and give it to him.  If he changed his mind and wanted green after I’d already poured it and put it on his table, well too bad.  If he chooses to throw a tantrum because of this, then he gets removed from the table until he calms down and chooses to eat.  I like giving him options (I never give him more than 2 or 3 options for things) because it does make him feel like he has some say and that his wants are valued.

2)  We’ve Created a Low Bar For Kids To Meet.  When our kids throw tantrums in front of others and you get “that look” from another mom or even someone that doesn’t have kids, our response is “well-that’s just how it is with kids.  Nothing you can do about it”.  I assure you that’s not true.  Especially in the toddler age.  Now when they’re still newborns or even around 1 year old, your expectations can’t be too high.  One of the books I’ve read said that once they hit toddler age (about 18 months) you should expect about 60% obedience.  As they get older and learn more about what you expect in certain situations, that percentage goes up.  Carter is almost 3 1/2 years old and I would say he obeys about 75-80% of the time. 

We started working on saying “no” to him around 10 months old.  I know that sounds early, but not according to the books I read.  By 11 months, we started using timeouts for about a minute each time.  Again, I know this seems harsh, but it’s really not!  They learn so much quicker than you think they do.  And for the record, a time out at 11 months old consisted of placing baby in the pack-n-play away from the thing you’re telling them not to do.  Carter knew what “no” meant by the time he was 1 and was already starting to obey me when I said it.   There are so many moms out there that just let their kids run rampant through a store or physically hurt other children (pulling hair or pushing them down when they try to play with certain toys) that say “well you can’t expect much out of a two year old”.  I’m calling BS friends!  They do those things because we let them.  We haven’t shown them what we expect.  We’re just now at the stage where Carter notices when he gets punished for something that he did that some other kid also did, but the other kid didn’t get punished.  This is beyond frustrating to explain to a 3 year old, but I do the best I can. 

I should also clarify what I mean when I say “punish”.  90% of the time, punishment means time-out.  We take a chair from the dining room and move it into the corner by the front door and he stays there for a few minutes.  He’s not allowed to get out of time out until he acknowledges what he did wrong and apologizes for it.  For example, saying “I’m sorry” isn’t enough.  He has to say “I’m sorry for throwing the toy car at Gizmo”.  Otherwise, he will learn that he just has to say “sorry” to get out of timeout without actually relating the time-out to what he did to get there.  Make sense?  If we’re not at home, punish means to remove him from the situation.  If we’re at church, I’ll take him to the bathroom to stay there for a few minutes and explain to him what he did wrong and make him apologize before we can leave the bathroom.  The other 10% of the time, punishment does include some sort of spanking, whether it’s getting popped on the bottom or popped on the hand.  I’m definitely not taking the time to discuss spanking vs. non-spanking.  It’s a choice every parent has to make and only you know your child well enough to determine how he/she takes punishment best.  So basically what I’m trying to say in these three paragraphs on #2 is that yes, toddlers will be toddlers and they will throw toy cars at the dog.  But we, as parents, are the ones that set the bar.  If we don’t punish them for it, they will always throw toy cars at the dog.  And even worse, they may throw a toy car at you or at a visitor in your home.  Raise the bar folks.  Lets teach our kids what we expect of them.

3)  We’ve Lost the Village.  You know that old saying “it takes a village to raise a child”?  Well back in the day, that was true!  Actually it is still true.  As parents, we can’t be around our child 24 hours a day.  Sometimes grandparents babysit overnight.  Sometimes they’re at school with teachers.  Sometimes they’re with a babysitter.  A parent can only control the raising of their child when they are with them.  Other times, they depend greatly on whoever is taking care of their children.  Back in the day, parents depended on these other caregivers helping correct their child when they acted out.  These days, however, parents get offended when someone else tries to correct their child.  As the author of the article says, we should all be working towards the same goal-raising proper boys and girls. 

If Carter is acting up at school, I don’t just want to hear about it, I EXPECT to hear about it.  I want to know what he did so that I can keep an eye out for him doing it at home too.  I want to know, so that after he gets a “talking to” by the teachers, he also receives a “talking to” by me and Justin.  I want Carter to know that all of us are on the same team.  Teachers, grandparents and babysitters are all supposed to be the eyes in the back of mom and dad’s heads.  I never want Carter to think to himself “oh mom and dad are out of town and I’m staying with Nana and Papa or Gigi for a few days.  Time to act out to get what I want!!!”.  We have to help eachother out!  Friends that are reading this that are around my child, if you see him do something he shouldn’t be doing….PLEASE TELL ME!!!  I want to make sure he doesn’t do it again and I can’t punish or correct what I can’t see!  On the flip side, don’t be offended if another parent tells you that they saw your kid do something wrong.

4)  We Rely Too Heavily On Shortcuts.  We are so bad about shortcuts these days!  Technology is great y’all, don’t get me wrong, but it can be awful too.  We live in an age where our toddlers expect us to entertain them by giving them the iPhone or the iPad.  I don’t mind doing this with Carter, but we only do it for so long.  As it turns out, my child is extremely active and would rather play with things in the floor or outside than sit down and watch TV.  I take zero credit for this….this is how he’s always been.  He won’t watch TV unless he’s strapped in his car seat (we do have a DVD Player in the car).  Otherwise, he’s running around playing with any and everything he can get his hands on.  As the author states, if we allow our kids to take the iPad to watch television shows so that we can have an hour to ourselves, then we better expect to take that iPad everywhere we go.  Bottom line, children need to learn patience.  And handing them an electronic device whenever they’re bored isn’t teaching them patience.  It’s all about balance.  By all means, let your kid play with the iPad, especially if it’s a game that helps them learn their ABC’s or counting, but let’s not allow them to spend all their time on it.  There is a lot of value in kids playing with actual toys.  They learn from those too!  Another example the author gives are always rushing to your toddler when he falls to pick him up and make him feel better.  Toddlers have to learn to pick themselves up and just “shake it off”.  They will never learn to do this if you swoop in and come to the rescue all the time. 

5)  Parents Put Kids Needs Over Their Own.  As parents, we are internally wired to dedicate all of our time and efforts to our children.  To putting their needs first.  Now this isn’t a bad thing necessarily, but the author makes a point that we’ve taken this WAY too far in recent years.  Clearly our children’s safety should always be first priority, but the author isn’t talking about safety.  She gives an example of a kid at the zoo with her dad and the kid wants something to drink.  The closest place to buy drinks is across the other side of the zoo so instead of telling his daughter to just wait until they pass a water fountain or until they come to the next concession stand, he runs as fast as he can over there to get her what she wants.  This also ties in with making them learn patience.  If we’re always running to get them what they want when they want it, they won’t learn patience.

These are all things that I am having to constantly remind myself.  I didn’t blog about them because I’ve mastered them and want to teach other parents “how it’s done”.  Gosh…I’m still learning myself!!!  But I loved the article so much and believe so much in these 5 things that I felt the need to put it out there in case anyone else was interested in changing their parenting ways.  I don’t think it’s a secret that we’re starting to see a transition from the hard-working baby boomers who had to do everything for themselves to this new, recent generation who expects a trophy just for participating.  If we want to stop this trend, then start it in your own home!

Easter 2015

Easter started this year with a trip to the church for the annual Breakfast with the Easter Bunny and the egg hunt.  This was Garrett’s first Easter and also marks one of very few times that I have dressed the boys alike.  I truly thought I would do that more, but just haven’t for some reason! 

All the grandkids except the newest one, baby Charlotte, who was still in the hospital during this breakfast!

 

Mrs. Kristi is explaining the egg hunt to the kids so they’re all waiting patiently for the green light to start heading outside to hunt the eggs!

 

It didn’t take but about 2 minutes for Carter to have his basket full of eggs.  Once his was full he started helping his cousins Cynthia and Celia fill up their baskets.  He’s a sweetheart!

Helping his cousin get some eggs with Nana.

Then there was the actual event of Easter…

This needs explanation.  See, Carter is OBSESSED with his Nana’s car.  Mainly because her license plate tag says “SING JOY”.  He spells it all the time.  With those magnetic refrigerator letters…on the bathtub wall with those spoungy letters that stick to the wall…all the time.  Everywhere.  He loves it.  I just so happened to find a place that does kid size license plate tags for bicycles.  So I picked our state and made it say SING JOY and the Easter Bunny brought it to him for Easter.  He was so excited!  It’s now on the back of his bike.

 

We will likely sign Carter up for some tee-ball this fall, but he’s never played before so we got him the tee-ball set so that he would get some practice in our backyard.  Naturally we had to have a quick teaching session with daddy before church.

It was the best I could get.  Y’all…the struggle is real.  Getting a picture of two kids while they’re both looking at the camera and not messing with their clothes and making decent facial expressions…it’s impossible.

The cousins before digging into their Easter baskets at Nana and Papa’s house.

Then we had an Easter Egg Hunt in Nana and Papa’s backyard.  Nana had a great idea to ensure all the kids would get the same number of eggs.  Each egg had the number 1, 2 or 3 written on it.  Each child was assigned a number so when they went hunting for eggs, they could only get the egg if it had their number on it.  If it didn’t, they had to put it back.  BRILLIANT.

After the egg hunt we may or may not have let all the kids ride Uncle Justin/Daddy like a horse.  He was a good sport :)

Garrett - 5 Months

***Carter had to join in on the fun when we were taking Garrett’s monthly picture!***

Diapers

Still in size 2’s for now but as soon as we’re done with this box, we’re moving to 3’s.  We have several boxes of 3’s from diaper showers, which is good.  Technically he can still fit into size 2.  They’re not too tight or anything, but size 3 starts at 16 pounds and he’s over 16 now, so we may as well just go to 3’s and hopefully we’ll be in 3’s for a while.

Shoe Size

He doesn’t wear shoes yet so I have no idea!

 

Clothes

Mostly in 6 month clothes now.  Several of his 3 month clothes still fit and he does wear them, but we’re honestly moving into 6 months faster than I thought because all the 3 month clothes I had with Carter were winter clothes (long sleeves and pants) and his 6 month clothes were all short sleeves and shorts because it was June when he was 6 months.  Now that it’s starting to get pretty warm outside here in Alabama, I need Garrett in some short sleeve stuff so he’s having to wear 6 month stuff that Carter wore.  At 5 months old,  Carter’s clothes actually fit Garrett pretty good which I assumed would be the case since Carter’s clothes have been washed and dried a ton.  Garrett’s nighttime sleepers are all size 3-6 month though.

 

Feeding

We’re still doing amazing off of just breastmilk!  We have successfully moved from our 3 hour schedule into a 4 hour schedule.  This change in time means that Garrett has dropped an entire feeding (sometimes two).  He now eats 4 times a day (around 6-7oz) instead of 5-6 times a day.  No solids yet.  I will start oatmeal cereal when he turns 6 months old.  Garrett’s an efficient eater for sure.  He only has to nurse for about 5-10 minutes and he’s done, which is nice.  Obviously since we dropped a feeding, I can already notice a decrease in my milk supply.  Still no worries on that though.  My freezer is still completely full of milk that I need to take to the milk bank.  I got an email from them the other day.  My running total of milk donation is 1,042 ounces.  Justin calculated it and that’s just over 8 gallons!!!  WOW!

 

Schedule

See what I said above about moving from a 3 hour schedule to a 4 hours schedule.  This change also changed his waketimes and his sleep time a little bit.  Instead of being awake for an hour between naps, he’s now up to about 1 hour 20 minutes, but he can’t really make it much longer than that.  The exception to this rule is the very first waketime of the day.  He seriously can only make it about an hour being awake before he needs to go down for nap #1.  His naps are roughly 2-2 1/2 hours each.  I still can’t believe that, but Carter was the same way.  I can’t imagine why they want to go back to sleep so quickly after sleeping 13 hours!  So basically he still sleeps a lot…

 

Sleep

Like I said above, he still sleeps a lot!  In addition to the 2 – 2 1/2 hour naps he gets during the day, he sleeps a solid 12 hours at night, sometimes 13.   Every single morning, we have to wake him up around 8:30-8:45am to eat.  Love my little sleepers!!!!!  Babywise folks….it works!!  Now that Garrett can roll from his back to his tummy (completed this task right at the 4 month mark) he sleeps on his tummy.  Previously he had been a side sleeper, but now that he can get all the way over, he’s a tummy sleeper….just like big brother was at this age.

**Worthy to mention-like the picture above, he is constantly sleeping with his fingers in his mouth.  And not just sucking his thumb.  In fact, he’s never sucked his thumb ever!  He always puts at least 2 if not THREE fingers in his mouth while he sleeps!!!  Due to this, we have to wash his clothes and sheets pretty often because he drools all over them…**

Waketime

We still do the same things at waketime that we’ve been doing the last month or so.  But now that it’s getting warmer and prettier outside, lots of our waketimes are outside.  We ride the golf cart with big brother and Garrett even made his first visit to the park and had his first swing ride.  Carter just loves being outside riding bikes so I will frequently take Garrett with me and just hold him or sit in a chair with him in my lap while watching big brother play.  Which, by the way, is another favorite thing lately.  He’s very amused by watching Carter no matter what he does.  He just stares in complete awe of big brother.

 

Mother’s Day Out

Summer school starts the first week of June.  Both kids will be going from 9-1pm three days a week.  I’m excited to finally have time to do things without a kid attached to my hip, but am also sad to see Garrett being taken care of by someone else.  He needs it for sure.  He has to get used to being cared for by someone other than immediate family and Mother’s Day Out is a great way to get that accomplished.  What makes my heart ache the most is that the very first time Garrett goes to school, I will be out of town.  Justin and I have planned a trip for just the two of us (haven’t had one of those in a long time) and because of the timing, it had to be the first week of June, which is Garrett’s first time to be in school.   My mom and Justin’s mom are tag teaming keeping the kids while we’re gone.  I was glad to make the trip during summer school because it doesn’t put too much strain on Gigi or Nana since the kids will both be in school for several hours a day for those days.  But it doesn’t make it any easier for momma :( 

I even told Justin (and verified with the school that it was ok to do this) that instead of going ahead and signing Garrett up for the full 4 weeks, I’d like to sign him up for just 2 weeks to see how he does with it.  If he’s struggling, then I will just keep him at home with me those second two weeks.  But if he’s doing well then I will sign up for the last two weeks.  I am confident that he’ll be fine but like I told Justin, I’d hate to pay for the full 4 weeks and for whatever reason, Garrett hates it, and then we would have paid for school that he wasn’t going to.  But I know the teachers and Garrett’s already familiar with the classroom because it’s where he goes during church so I really do think he will be fine.

Statistics

No 5 month appointment but I weighed and measured Garrett myself.  He weighed about 16 pounds, 10 ounces and is roughly 25-26 inches tall.  This puts him in the 40th percentile for height and 70th percentile for weight.  Again-these are estimates.  Especially the length.  Hard to measure a baby when all he wants to do is kick and rollover!

 

Abilities

Garrett started rolling over from tummy to back (the easier of the two) at 7 weeks old.  He finally rolled from back to tummy on March 4, just days after turning 4 months old.  Since that day, all of his naps and nighttime sleep have been on his tummy.  He used to be a side sleeper but now he prefers his tummy.  This is exactly what Carter did too.  He was a BIG tummy sleeper.  At 3 years old, he still sleeps on his tummy sometimes, but now he sleeps more like an adult…various positions but mostly on his back.  Garrett’s definitely not crawling yet, but I can tell that he’s interested in things that are on the floor in front of him when he’s on his tummy.  He’s not trying to reach for them yet, but you can tell that he’s looking at it and studying how he can get to it.  He sits up in his bumbo seat fairly frequently and I make him sit up on his own with a small amount of assistance from me.  That’s the next big thing for us to work on is getting him to sit up by himself.  Carter was between 5 and 6 months when he was sitting up by himself so I’m hoping we can get Garrett to do it around the same time frame…but Garrett has a lot more weight on him than Carter did so balancing that weight may be more difficult for him.  Finally, Garrett is now full blown trying to grab things that hang above him.  As of this moment, he’s trying to put the things he grabs onto in his mouth (teething), but he does love to grab things above his head.

 

Teething

Those bottom teeth are STILL making their way through.  Ugh!  Some days Garrett isn’t phased by them in the least, but other days, I can tell it’s hurting him really badly.  I tend to rotate between giving him teething tablets, orajel and infant tylenol.  I only give him one of these three things on the days that I can tell he’s in pain.  Hoping these teeth come through quick!!!

 

Discipline

Again, definitely not there yet!

 

Other Notable Things

Likes

• Sleeping
• Car rides – he’s actually beginning to look out the window now at the things outside.  He used to fall asleep almost immediately after the car started moving but now it’s quite likely he is able to stay up during the entire length of the car ride by just listening to big brother talk or looking out the window.
• Watching brother play outside.
• Being outside when it’s warm.  He prefers to sit in the shade because he doesn’t like sunlight in his eyes, but he does enjoy being outside.
• Seeing himself in a mirror
• When daddy plays peek-a-boo with him
• When I roll my tongue-it makes him laugh hysterically!
• Sucking on his fingers – gah he sucks on them so much since he’s teething
• Daddy.  I swear, no matter what I do, I can’t make him laugh like daddy can.
• The toy that is connected to his crib.  It lights up and plays lullabies for a few minutes and then it turns itself off.  We usually turn it on right when we put him down for a nap and he stares at it for a while before falling asleep.
• Baby Einstein DVD’s – preferably one with land animals on it (he’s not a fan of the ocean one for some reason-which was Carter’s favorite one!)
• Our cable company, Brighthouse, just picked up a new channel called “Baby First”.  Garrett loves watching almost anything on this channel.  Particularly this one show that has three people dressed up as mice and they play with colors and animals and stuff.

 

 Dislikes

• Sun in his eyes
• Teething
• Getting bored with one activity-just like his brother did when he was this age, he likes to change up his activities every 15 minutes or so unless it’s a Baby Einstein DVD.  He can usually sit through a whole 25-30 minute DVD pretty easily.
• That’s about it….I got one happy baby y’all!!!