Will turns 5 months old!

On October 6th, Will turned 5 months old!  We didn't have a doctors appointment this month but he's officially in 9 month clothing, size 3 diapers (pampers baby dry), and weighs around 19 lbs 3 ounces on our home baby scale (which I think is around 90-95%).



SLEEP!
He is still an awesome napper during the day and naps a lot since we are still on a 3 hour schedule.  He wakes up from the 45 minute intruder still sometimes but when we rock him he'll go right back down to sleep and sleep for another hour!  He is still swaddled but we are working on phasing that out this week actually.  We are still rocking him completely to sleep before putting him in his crib.

This is his rough schedule:
8:15 wake up, nurse, play, naps from 9:30 to 11:30.
11:30 wake up, nurse, play, naps from 1:30 to 2:30.
2:30 wake up, nurse, play, naps from 3:30 to 5:30.
5:30 wake up, nurse, play, eat 2 ounces of pumped breastmilk at dinner table, cat naps 7:30 to 8:15.
8:15 wake up, nurse,  play, bath, nurse again/drink more pumped breastmilk, and then bedtime around 10:00.
Middle of the night is still totally unpredictable but almost always wakes up around 2:00 am and 6:00 am to eat but goes back down immediately until 8:15 or 8:30 am.

Oh man speaking of night time sleep, we have missed that!  I honestly didn't think he would hit the 4 month sleep regression as he hadn't actually progressed very much but it was possible.  We went from sleeping a straight 6+ hours, to not going longer than a 3 hour stretch for 90% of this month... I mean it was like we had a newborn again!  It was very rare I was ever able to get him back to sleep either without feeding him.  Thankfully like I said earlier he goes right back to sleep, barely even having to rock him so that is nice.  Excited to get longer than 3 and 4 hour stretches soon though-- he'll do it when he's ready I'm sure!

The ONLY thing Will is not chill with is going to sleep.  Dude fights sleep HARD and we refer to it as a "wrestling match".   Kyle is a pro at fighting him to sleep, where I just really dislike doing it. He fights hard-- like a bucking bronco-- for a couple minutes then just closes his eyes and his body relaxes fast asleep.  I'm definitely looking forward to being able to put him in his crib and him put himself to sleep with no wrestling and no swaddle! Will has no interest in the paci this month and most of the time will get more upset if we try to give it to him.  One less thing we have to break him of though which is fine by us!  

EATING!
This big boy sure loves to eat and I'm thankful so far that my supply is keeping up with him.  We are still on a 3 hour eating schedule-- wonder if he'll ever stretch out to a 4?! He's really efficient and surprises me how quickly he's done... so much so that I worry he's not drinking enough!  I just recently went on a 24 hour trip away and it was very reassuring seeing how much I was pumping out compared to how much he drank from the bottle with Kyle.  Most feedings he was eating around 4 ounces and I was pumping out 5 or 6. I am still pumping every morning after his first feeding (normally getting 6-7 ounces) and we are using some of that still in the evening with his 2 ounce bottle at dinner, some more before he goes to sleep if he's still acting hungry and then freezing the rest.  Thankful for my freezer stash so I was able to go away for 24 hours with no worry.


Our pediatrician said that some larger babies will need to start rice cereal earlier as they start to lose interest in just breast milk.  Will is definitely getting distracted easier but so far I've found ways to keep him eating, either by changing position or going to a quiet space (ha that's been interesting to do with a toddler).  We'll play this next month by ear and if I don't feel like he's getting enough we might start cereal but so far so good.  

Considering he eats so much it's crazy that he only goes poop every 2-3 days.  The pediatrician said his body is probably just super efficient and breaks down my milk mostly to nutrients rather than waste.  She mentioned a study researching this--proving that some larger breast fed babies bodies work that way, which is awesome!

PERSONALITY!
He is still such a happy baby and smiles all.the.time -- totally living up to his nickname of Chill Will.  We had to work so hard to get smiles out of Em when she was younger, so we are just soaking it in.  It's so cute when Kyle walks in from work and the huge smile that Will gives him.  Will loves to giggle and play peek-a-boo, too, and gives Emery the biggest smiles-- she's totally his favorite.  

Little man went through a phase this month where he did not like the carseat and would fight going to sleep like crazy or just get bored and need me for entertainment in the back seat if we were traveling as a family on road trips.  Luckily that has passed and he looks out the window now and falls asleep most of the time without making a peep.

Some days he's more talkative than others, it really depends on his mood.  He always talks a ton at night though when it's just Kyle and I and things are more quiet.  I think during the day there is always so much going on or Emery to watch that he just observes and smiles.

RANDOMS!
He is a pro at reaching out to grab anything now and constantly is trying to get things.  Emery was sitting by him the other day and he was rolling and reaching out to get her shirt and cracking her up.

He instantly rolls from his back to his side or back all the way to his tummy now but has somehow forgotten how to roll from his tummy to back.  He instead buries his head in the floor and pulls his knees up underneath him like he wants to start crawling (oh geez!).  He loves to bounce like crazy in the doorway jumper and has already mastered walking forward in his walker.  We definitely have a wiggle worm on our hands!

Hands aren't in his mouth as much this month, instead just grabbing toys or grabbing his feet.  He LOVES Sophie and other teether toys.  Guess we'll see when his first tooth comes in, compared to Emery not getting any till she was after 1 year old!

His abs are strong and he's already sitting up on his own for over a minute at a time.  Still totally unpredictable when he'll throw himself backwards but it's so crazy that he's old enough to sit up-- where did our baby go?!  My friend, Kim, gave us her exersaucer and he loves to bounce in it and play with all the toys.  He sits in his high chair with us when we eat now as well.  We've seen a decrease in spit up this month as he's more vertical with all these things.  

He caught his first couple colds this month and also went big and had croup :(  We were in Georgia visiting friends when we woke up at 3 am to him wheezing.  Luckily we knew Kennestone hospital like the back of our hands and after an oral steroid and one breathing treatment he was much better and we went home around 7.  Thankfully, we knew the ropes from Em's croup last year so we knew the process of what had to happen and made all the right decisions for little Will!

Just this past week he found his tongue and is constantly sticking it out and blowing raspberries.  He loves it when we do it back to him.

My friend, Kim, gave us an exerciser this month and Will LOVES it.  Anyway he can feel large and in charge is the best way for him!

And Kerry & Brad gave us their old jeep walker... he loves it as well and already knows how to walk forwards in it and press the buttons for the music.

And a couple extra photos:

Love love love this BOY!!