***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!!!
