Five Months

Cale turned FIVE MONTHS old on Wednesday! Next month, he'll be half of a year old. Very bittersweet.

Stats: I'm honestly not sure. We go back to the doctor for more immunizations next month, so I'll have more accurate stats then. 

Sizes: He is still wearing Size 2 diapers, but only because I have a box of them to finish up! After these last few are gone, he'll be bumped up to the next size.  Most of his clothes are 3-6 months. All of his newborn things have become too small in length. Aaaaand, given the nature of children's clothing sizes, he can wear some clothes up to 9 months.

Food: Cale is taking five bottles per day, along with three 'meals' of baby food. We are starting to introduce the sippy cup slowly. I offer him water in the sippy cup at meal time so he can practice gripping the cup. He doesn't really seem to care for water, though. Any suggestions? He definitely has a sweet tooth when it comes to food preference. He has taken any fruit combination we have offered him. The only vegetable he took without hesitation was sweet potatoes (go figure!).  We are slowly coaxing him into eating more veggies. Alan was very successful one day with carrots, which I have yet to be.  I'm really hoping to have a well-rounded eater!

Routine:  Welp, let's start with the positive. I'm so pleased with our daytime routine! I have such a happy, fun-loving, playful baby ;) He takes two solid naps per day, an hour in the morning and an hour and a half (ish) in the afternoon. He is so easy to put down for a nap. He is routine with his times, so it's simply a matter of laying him in his crib with his pacifier. He is a good self-soother (note: during the day time!).

Now for the negative. Remember how I told you last month that I thought our sleeping patterns were taking a turn for the better?! Huummmphh, I was wrong. He is only eating once per night, and not even taking a full bottle at that time. On a normal night he wakes 4-5 times without soothing himself back to sleep. If I get up 3 or less times per night, I consider that successful. It's pitiful. It used to be a matter of 'plugging' him up with a pacifier, buuuut, that's also taken a turn for the worse. Now we have to rock. After many bad nights in a row (3-4 hours of broken sleep), I can't even see straight. I have to make a conscious decision in the morning not to let my fatigue steal my joy for that day. I don't want to spend these early months ticked off all the time because of my lack of sleep. Each morning I simply count my blessings and choose joy! ;) Sometimes it's more difficult than others, but I'm always thankful that God's mercies are new each morning. I might just have to accept that Cale isn't the best sleeper. Good thing he's so stinkin' cute!

Developmental Milestones: He is at such a fun stage right now! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE watching him learn new things each day. He is so studious of his surroudings. He has developed a little laugh and seems to be quite the smily boy these days.  He seems to love all his toys. We switch up surroundings constantly during the day. We still utilitze his play gym quite a bit, along with his bouncer, swing, and Bumbo seat. His hand-eye coordination also continues to improve. I broke out the Baby Einstein DVD's in the last couple weeks. They seem pretty boring to me, but I'm not five months old either. They seem to really capture his attention---they are quite soothing. He continues to watch Veggie Tales. I love hearing him laugh when they laugh. I know he's got no idea what is even funny, but it's so sweet to hear him chuckle at the video.  I thought he'd be rolling over by now, but he still hasn't taken the plunge. He will rock up on his side but never all the way over. In fact, he's started sleeping some on his left side. His favorite, favorite toys continue to be his play gym, bouncer, Tad from LeapFrog, and Scout from LeapFrog.

Funny story. A couple weeks ago we ran to Mardel's to get a new Bible for one of my bestfriends, Tricia's, new baby girl, Gentry. When we took it to the counter to have it imprinted we were given a 15 minute wait. So, to wait it out, I took Cale over to the kids section where they had Veggie Tales playing on the television. We parked right there in front of the TV, and Cale proceeded to giggle and laugh at Bob and Larry. The worker in that section of the store thought it was the sweetest, funniest thing she'd seen.

He constantly melts my heart.