Yesterday our little Emma Bug turned FIVE MONTHS. FIVE MONTHS. That's almost a half a year. Holy Moly. We no longer have a newborn. Instead, we have a big, huge, old infant. Okay, she's not big and huge. Weighing in at 14 pounds she's in the 25th percentile. And I guess five months isn't old per se. But seriously. How has that much time passed already?!?!
Emma is a sweet little bug. She's very serious. She watches everything, taking it all in, with a look of judgment. She does smile and laugh, but only on very special occasions. She likes to be held, but she's not much of a cuddler. Her favorite activities are rolling around on the floor butt naked and watching her brother play. She loves to be outside. She's a very picky princess. Some days she eats her cereal, some days she doesn't. She prefers the most expensive bottle and the most expensive pacifier. She is generally very good-natured and pleasant, but when she wants something or is unhappy she's quite vocal and passionate about it. Her daytime sleeping pattern is much better now--she takes two good naps a day, at predictable times. The night, on the other hand...let's just say when she's a teenager I'm looking forward to going into her room and crying for 30 minutes every two hours.
This morning she woke up particularly early and crabby. I ended up deciding within an hour to just put her back down because she was clearly needing more sleep. I laid her on the changing table to change her and she just instantly passed out. Crazy kid. So I just lifted up the changing table pad and put it in the crib. She slept for about 15 minutes, then woke up. I picked her up and she passed out again in my arms. So I put her back down. This is really her first time sleeping unswaddled, and her first time sleeping in her crib. We've tried it before and it was disastrous, but that was a while ago. I figured today is as good as any to give it another shot. So right now she's in her crib, unswaddled, moaning and whining. This is all very new to me, as Ben never really did the swaddling thing or the pacifier, and he slept in his crib from day one. So any tips on this little sleep transition would be appreciated, because I'm flying blind here.
In other "milestone" news, Emma has all kinds of things going for her. She's always been crazy strong, and it's starting to pay off. She can stand really well holding on to my hands, but she's bearing all the weight and my hands are just for balance. She's sitting pretty well using my hands for balance. I think she'll be doing that on her own any day now. She's a serious rolly poly. She's really good at rolling. The only thing is that she will roll herself from her back to her tummy, then be really upset because she doesn't like being on her tummy. She keeps trying to crawl. She just wants to be so advanced. She started eating cereal a few weeks ago, although not consistently. Last night she had her first bites of sweet potato. Loved it. I'm hoping all these solids will translate to more sleeping at night.
Update: I fetched Emma. We cuddled. She fell back asleep. I gave her a little lovey and put her in her cradle, unswaddled. Probably better to do one thing at a time. She's been sleeping for 20 minutes. Here's hoping!
Update (2 minutes later): She’s awake. It’s going to be a long day, isn’t it?
So that's our little bug. We love her to pieces.
2 comments:
So do I love her to pieces! 'Course, I love you all that way . . just sayin'
Shannon, hang in there with the swaddling. I swaddled William until he was almost a year old. Probably a little too long, but he was such a finicky sleeper that we did whatever worked! When it came time to wean, I started by swaddling one arm in, one arm out (by that point he was wriggling out of it anyway). I also transitioned to a sleep sack which still kept his feet confined. It seemed to work for us. Hope things start going better with the sleeping. I know how frustrating it can get!
Post a Comment