5 months

Can you believe it? I'm actually posting this the same day that Neil turned 5 months!

Around the 4 month mark, things really changed and quickly. Neil became a whole lot more responsive and active. He interacts with us a whole lot more. The only bad thing is that it messed with his sleep again. For a little bit he started to wake up at night in the middle of the night. Dave tends to go in and just put the pacifier in, because we know he's not hungry, and if he sees me he decides he is hungry. I do try to be careful though and make sure he's eating as much as he normally would during the day. If something happens and he hasn't, I'll get up with him and nurse him. (I had to do that once.) I've been reading that part of the reason babies have a sleep regression around 4 months is because they are a lot more aware of their surroundings. They want to play more and you need to try to keep it dark to show that it's night time.

And of course later in the month he got worse with sleep. He is such a good, happy baby but nights are hard. We actually tried crying it out one night (Ferber method) and checked in on him at intervals. After an hour he was still going strong and we felt terrible about it so we got him. That might have been a mistake but I just couldn't handle the crying anymore.

Neil seems to be doing really well with standing and sitting. I have to hold him when he stands but he really pushes out and seems to be able to handle his weight very well when standing on his legs. Sometimes he doesn't want to be lying down, he wants to be standing. He still isn't rolling but I still think that's just by choice. When we put him on his tummy, it actually looks like he wants to crawl. He really enjoys time in the exersaucer and bouncer as well. I think he might be getting close to sitting on his own, which means I can break out the jogging stroller we bought on sale Memorial Day! We did start using the umbrella stroller and that's working fine.

One concern I have is that he isn't really rolling. Maybe we hold him too much or something, I don't know. He has rolled both ways now and can but doesn't.

We still haven't seen any teeth but his drooling is really picking up. And I didn't think it could get worse. ;) I keep hoping his sleep issues lately are due to teething so it's at least explainable and defintiely temporary.

I think the thing we are struggling with the most is sleep. Other than the sleep regression, Neil still sleeps through the night very well. But his nights are shifted. It makes it hard when I get up slightly before 5am every day for work. He doesn't go down in his crib until 11ish at night a lot of nights. We have tried putting him down a lot earlier, but if we can get him in the crib (which often we can't) he wakes up about 20-30 minutes later, like it was a nap. And if he's out with us, around 9:30 he gets a second wind and is wide awake ready to play. His hours do seem to be shifted though; he will sleep pretty late in the mornings if we let him. I've been told to wake him up in the morning and then he'll go to sleep earlier, but that's not working either. We have to wake him up for daycare and most mornings he's awake when he goes to daycare so it's not like he's really groggy when we do wake him up.

The bedtime routine we are starting: Give him a bath or maybe use a washcloth to just wipe his face or something, then put on his pajamas, read him a book, nurse him, put him in the crib when he falls asleep.

Speaking of reading books, that is just really fun with him. He is definitely looking at the pages, and reaching out for the books. He's even turning the pages at times.

He also seems to really like the piano. I have put him in the exersaucer and he will sit there and just watch me play next to him. I've also held him in my lap when I've been playing and at times he will reach out for the keys himself. So I let him push the keys down to see that he can make music too.

Work is still work for me. Pumping is disruptive in general and I have to admit I feel like I'm missing out on a lot because I have to leave meetings to go pump, etc. They still haven't installed a badge reader, which is frustrating.

I started a Couch to 10K program and signed up to run the relay for the Hershey Half Marathon in October. I figure since that will be 6.4 or 6.7 miles, a 10K is close enough. And if I can actually be ready by that point I can run some 5Ks or 10Ks beforehand. It will be nice to get out and race again. I'm still having a really hard time getting out and running though. Especially the last few weeks, Neil has not been sleeping at night unless one of us is holding him and Dave and I are both exhausted. I can't drag my butt off the couch to go run. I really need to work on that and just start doing it.

On the good side, I dropped down for sure to pre-pregnancy weight! It's distributed differently and I have more fat and less muscle, but it's definitely a start. I keep saying I need to try on my pants from before- my bigger jeans and work pants are sliding down and I have to keep hiking them up.