Carter - Five Months

**I absolutely love this picture of him.  It portrays his personality so well.  Such a happy baby that loves to smile and laugh**

Diapers

Still in size 2’s.

Clothes

Still wearing 3-6 months.

Nursing

He still loves to nurse and I still despise pumping.  You know, it’s one thing when I am working out of our office and am able to pump in my own office with a locked door and blinds closed.  It’s a whole other ball game when I’m at a client’s office and I end up having to pump in the bathroom on a toilet.  I’ll be in there for 15 minutes and I’m pretty sure some women (that have never heard a breast pump) are baffled at why I’m in there for so long and why I’m making so much noise.  The plus side is that I seem to be pumping a CRAP TON.  I have plenty of milk in our fridge and on top of that, I’ve begun freezing a lot of milk so that it doesn’t go bad in the fridge.  I would guess I have close to 40-50oz. in the freezer and at any given time, I usually have about 50oz in the fridge.  I’m pumping more than he needs right now because he only eats 5 times a day, but I probably pump 6 times a day.

On another nursing note, Carter has now begun to get VERY easily distracted while nursing.  He’ll nurse for a few minutes then turn his head around to look behind him as if to make sure nothing is going on that he’s missing.  Then he’ll nurse a little while longer, then turn and look again.  This happens numerous times during a feeding session and it’s quite annoying when I’m trying to get him to hurry and eat because we have to go somewhere.  Also, Carter has gotten to where he plays with my clothes when he nurses.  If I’m wearing one of my nursing tanks (spaghetti strap) he’ll grab the strap and pull it towards him as hard as he can and then let go like he’s letting go of a slingshot.  And that’s about what it feels like when he’s letting go too.  It hurts so bad!!  I have to find a way to make him stop doing this!!  Suggestions welcome!

Sleep

We have officially taken sleep habits from our daddy.  Carter gets no less than 12 hours of sleep every night, but I rarely let him go more than 12 hours without a feeding.  But watch out if you wake him before he’s ready.  He has a wrath.  One morning, I had to wake him after a mere 11 hours of sleep (can I be a baby again?) and he was NOT happy with mommy that day.  Carter has what I call his “happy place” when he sleeps.  His happy place is on his tummy, head turned to one side and his thumb in his mouth.  This is how he sleeps most of the time.  Though about mid-month, we started noticing him lifting his knees slightly which would lift up his butt.  It looks quite strange when looking at the video monitor.  It’s as if he’s just sticking his butt out there for you to see.  Weird.  But he’s done it pretty much every night since we noticed it.  I’ve read that a lot of babies wake up around the 5am range and “talk to themselves” for a bit and fall back asleep.  Carter is no exception to this.  He usually wakes me up around 5-5:30, not crying at all, but just cooing and making noise looking around the room at things.  He falls back asleep and usually stays asleep until I wake him. 

Feedings

We’ve bumped up to 6-6.5 oz this month and I think that is one of the things that’s helping Carter sleep longer naps during the day.  He eats 5 times a day.  On rare occasions he’ll eat 4 times.  At this age, it’s suggested they eat 4-6 times a day, so we’re right on track.  At Carter’s 4 month pediatrician appointment, doc said I could go ahead and do solids if I wanted.  I refused.  I don’t want to even touch solids until 6 months.  He does really well off of just breastmilk so I’d like for him to be exclusively on breastmilk for a little bit longer.  Doc was proud of me for that.  I’ve read that you have to be careful to not introduce solids too early because kids can create allergies if you introduce too early.  On the flipside, you can’t wait too late or they won’t be getting the nutrition they need.  The suggested timeframe to begin solids is 4-6 months, which is why I plan to begin when he’s 6 months.

Carter now recognizes a bottle and when we’re trying to heat a bottle in warm water before we give it to him, he will see it and will try to reach for it, almost falling out of your arms in the process.  I think it is so amusing how far he has come with his motor skills.  He use to just let you feed him no fuss about it, but now if he even sees a bottle, he will reach his hands and his entire body towards it to get it in his mouth.  Of course 9 times out of 10, he misses his mouth when he pulls the bottle towards him.  He is also becoming increasingly interested in what I am eating.  He watches me when I put things in my mouth and studies it.  This is supposedly a sign they’re ready for solids, but again, I’m trying to hold out until 6 months before I start rice cereal. 

Naps

Like I mentioned above, Carter’s naps have increased in length quite a bit.  We’ve officially dropped the 4th nap.  He did this on his own, it wasn’t something I had to do.  He just started taking longer naps at the first three naps that by the time he should go down for the 4th we would be too close to bedtime, so we’ve just been keeping him up slightly longer at night and skipping the 4th nap all together.  So now, we’re at 3 naps that are usually 2 hours if not over 2 hours (with exception to the third nap which is usually an hour or a little more).  Most of these changes were actually implemented the week he turned 4 moths old.  His cycles are now 3-4 hours.  I can’t remember the last time we had to feed him prior to three hours from the last time he ate.

Waketime

This is where we’re struggling these days.  Carter is the best little sleeper God could ever have given us, but due to that, he struggles with waketime.  He can’t make it more than an hour and a half without getting VERY fussy and needing a nap.  He struggles with independent play and I’m hoping that’s just the fact that he’s only 5 months old.  He doesn’t seem to be happy just sitting in an exersaucer or on the floor with a bunch of toys for long periods of time.  He gets bored very easily and wants you to change his activity when he gets bored.  When he was younger, you used to be able to set him in the floor on his ocean mat or in his mama-roo and he’d be content for 30-45 minutes or more.  Not so much these days.  Each activity only lasts about 15-20 minutes tops before he cries to be moved to something else.  It’s like he’s already developed baby ADD.  I hope this improves soon as he learns to crawl towards things and entertain himself.  The only thing that makes me feel better (slightly) is that I’ve heard that babies that are like that usually end up being very smart.  They get bored because they’ve figured out all about the toy that they need to and want to move on to the next challenging thing.  Maybe this is true.  Fingers crossed.

Statistics

There was no 5 month check up so all I can go on is my scale for weight and measuring height on my own. At 5 months old, Carter weighs 15lbs, 9oz and is between 27-28 inches tall.  According to a book I  have, this puts him in about the 50th percentile for weight and 90th percentile for height.  He just keeps getting skinnier and taller!

Abilities

We’re working on sitting up and getting pretty good at it.  I make him sit in the bumbo seat at least once a day for as long as he can take it.  I usually also sit him in front of the TV or a mirror to try to get him to sit on his own.  Right now he likes sitting in front of his playmats so that he can touch the toys that he would be touching if he were laying down under them.  I can tell he wants to crawl sooooooo bad but just doesn’t quite know how to make it happen.  There have been several times where he’s lifted up from his stomach onto his knees, but he doesn’t know where to go from there and usually just falls back on his stomach.  I’m not as concerned with crawling yet, I just REALLY want him to get to where he can sit up on his own for a long time without me overseeing him. 

Other Notable Things

We’re still teething.  His hands are constantly in his mouth and he is CONSTANTLY drooling all over the place.  Doc said that he will teeth for a while before he actually cuts a tooth.  He suggested against using orajel because of how long babies can teeth for.  If you read the box of orajel, it says not to use past 7 days if you’ve noticed a difference in the pain.  Since the pain of teething clearly lasts longer than 7 days, the doc said to just use it on days that he’s really in pain.  Carter is doing fine right now with the pain.  I can tell he can feel the pressure in his mouth, but he’s not overly grumpy about it at all.  I think he could honestly careless about teething toys too.  I’ve tried numerous ones and the face he gets when he puts it in his mouth compares to what my face would look like if I ate poop.  The day before he turned 5 months old, I noticed two front “bumps” that are lighter in color than the rest of his gums, so I think he’s got two teeth coming through right now!!  Which would explain the sickness that’s been going around.  Both Carter and momma have a cold and we’ve now given it to daddy too.  I think his teeth cutting through gave him a cold which he has passed to me.  We got some baby Tylenol that is bubble gum flavored and he seems to really like the taste, so right now, he gets baby Tylenol twice a day (once in the morning and once at night) and I’ve used orajel on his bottom gums at night before bed in hopes that the pain doesn’t keep him awake.  Ready for these teeth to come through!!!

Also, I’m not sure I’ve put this on the blog before, but Carter is NOT a pacifier lover.  He has never taken a pacifier since he was born.  I’m not really sure why, he just has no interest in it at all.  He is, however, a true thumb sucker.  It’s a habit we’ll eventually have to break him of, but for now, him sucking his thumb while he’s sleeping is about the cutest thing I’ve ever seen and I have no desire to make him stop right now.  It also helps his gums feel better since he won’t take teething toys.

Likes

• Sleeping on his tummy
• Bathtime
• Walks around the neighborhood (sometimes - if we wait too late in the day, he’ll get fussy)
• Neptune’s Ocean Baby Einstein DVD.  He will watch all of the DVD’s, but when he watches the ocean one, he’s glued to the tv and rarely blinks.  I think he’ll definitely be a scuba diver like his daddy.  Maybe by then mommy will get back into diving.
• Being outside - he now looks out the window when he’s in the carseat at trees and things outside.
• Sucking his thumb
• Daddy - we LOVE our daddy.  He makes Carter laugh all the time.
• The Preacher and his wife.  Wowzers, do we love Mr. Don and Miss Ina.  They can both make him laugh like crazy. 
• Jesus Loves Me lullaby.  I sing it to him while feeding and rocking him after our prayers every night and he falls right asleep.
• When you blow on his belly.  He thinks it’s hilarious.
• This month, we started putting Carter facing outwards in the Baby Bjorn.  We’ve never actually used that thing very much, but he is LOVING it now.  Justin had him at home when I was running errands one day and he walked him around the yard and through the house and garage and Carter just stared at everything.  I’ve been taking Carter on walks around the neighborhood in it instead of in his stroller and he really really loves it so much more than being in the stroller.

Dislikes

• The period after bathtime and before bedtime.  He cries less when he is having his diaper put on now than he use to, but as soon as you put on his PJ’s, he starts crying and squirming trying to get away from you.
• His exersaucer.  We just put it together and introduced Carter to it when he was about 4 1/2 months old.  He likes it for about 10 minutes but that’s it.   
• This isn’t really a dislike…it’s just plain hilarious.  Carter doesn’t like it when you wear sunglasses.  He will literally pull them off of your face so he can see your eyes.  It’s hilarious to watch.