5 month stats

Lana turned 5 months old today. That’s almost half a year!

We don’t have another well check until 6 months, so no official stats this time. But here is what I can tell you…

Sleeping. Well let’s see. I’d still call it hit or miss. She has now slept through as many as 5 nights in a row, but it’s not enough to call it a nightly occurrence. I have stopped changing her diaper if she wakes to eat, though, so that helps cut down the awake time in the middle of the night for both of us.

I think she did go through a bit of 4 month sleep regression, which was a nasty spell. For weeks she’d wake up crying within an hour of being put to bed not really needing anything but being lulled back to sleep, then wake again once or twice during the night to fuss and/or eat. The worst night of it all was the first night Ryan was out of town last week, and that was awful. Fortunately after that she started her 5 night sleep stretch, so hopefully she was getting the last of it out of her system. (KNOCK ON WOOD!!!)

I guess not sleeping consistently through the night at 5 months isn’t the end of the world, but I can’t help comparing it to Della, who slept through by 3 months and never looked back. Ah well. Lana is definitely her own person, that’s for sure.

Her napping is pretty good. She still usually gets 3 naps in a day, morning, afternoon, and evening. Sometimes if we’re at work she’s too busy to take a morning nap, so then she tends to take a longer one once we get home and I feed her, essentially combining her morning and afternoon ones. That works fine for me.

Eating. Still exclusively breastfed, eating every 2-3 awake hours during the day. I did try giving her her first taste of rice cereal a few weeks ago because she’s now so interested in watching us eat, but she didn’t really enjoy it. She was more enticed by the prospect of chewing on the spoon rather than actually trying to eat. No biggie. We didn’t start Della on solids regularly until around 6 months I think. It’s also just easier right now not having to worry about both nursing and actual feeding. I’m lazy, remember?

Physicality. This girl is constantly moving and wiggling! I call her my little squirm, because that’s what she always does. She can roll front to back no problem, and she is so close to rolling back to front as well. When on her back she’ll pull her legs up into a little bowling ball shape and tip all the way onto one side, but she can’t quite get her arms underneath her correctly to complete the roll.

I swear she’s ready to take off crawling, too. She can practically get onto her hands and knees when she’s on her stomach, and I’ve seen her do a pretty good downward dog imitation too. I looked over at her one day and she was in baby tripod mode with her feet planted on the blanket, pushing her tiny butt up into the air. Any time now, I tell ya. I keep forgetting I can’t leave her on the changing dresser anymore.

She’s pretty good at sitting with assistance, but when I try to have her sit by herself she still readily tips over. Last night I had her sitting in the boppy pillow on the couch, with the boppy around her stomach to kind of barricade her in. She liked it for a little while, but then she toppled over again so I just put her back on her play mat.

She also has the strongest abs ever. She can almost pull herself up to a sitting position from lying down as you start to pick her up. A budding athlete maybe?

Personality. Big. And loud. Lana chatters and shouts nonstop. And I mean shouts. She’ll be playing on her play mat, yanking at all the toys dangling from the arches above her, and I’ll hear all these high-pitched squeals and yells coming from her. Della and I always say she’s talking to her guys. I swear she’s commanding them, “Get down here and get in my mouth!!”

She makes the most adorable faces with the hugest smiles, too. Her tongue is her new favorite accessory, and watching her stick it out in all different directions is hysterical. She has learned to blow real raspberries too, which I love. Something must always be in her mouth, much more so than I ever remember with Della, and I mean always. She will literally lunge at whatever passes in front of her face to try and grab it with her gums.

And she’s a thumb sucker. I actually don’t mind this at all, because it’s much easier to deal with than having to replace the damn pacifier eighty billion times a day/night. I keep one arm out of her swaddle at night so she can get her thumb to calm her when she rustles around. Works like a charm. I sucked my thumb for years and my teeth are just fine.

I took the throw pillow out from under the jumperoo a few weeks ago, and she can now fully bounce herself with her little toes touching the floor. She was in there last night jumping and squealing with delight. So incredibly cute.

I think those are the main points for now. This one just keeps getting better and better, my little bugaboo. My sweet baby girl.

 i swear, all of these really are the same child…