Isaac's 5th Month
I better get this one posted before he turns 6 months (I love that I can backdate posts so it LOOKS like I posted this in Aug 31, when it's really 1/2 way through Sept!)!!
This last month Isaac has really discovered his toes and LOVES to put them in his mouth. If he has socks on, that’s fine too. He’s content to suck on those, or pull them off to get to the goods! He also loves to chew on toys!
Thankfully, he has started to majorly cut down on his spitting up. We still get quite a bit, don’t get me wrong. But one day this last month we made it an entire day with the same bib on! It was AMAZING! That only happened once, and it was likely because somehow his spit made it on the floor or whatnot. But still! It has helped cut back on the laundry I have to do, since I’m not blowing through burp clothes and bibs at such an incredible rate. Any picture you see of him without a bib on is because we took it off for the picture. The only time we ever don't have a bib on him is when he is sleeping!
I keep forgetting to mention.... I've been leaving Isaac at the YMCA since about 2.5 months, and also at the church nursery. With Kayla, I didn't leave her there until she was probably close to 6 months. Part of it was of my fear in general of leaving her alone, part because it was winter and I wanted to minimize the germs she was exposed to, and part of it was because she nursed so often it was hard for me to leave her at all! But with Isaac I figure I'm already leaving Kayla with them, plus any germs he's exposed to she would have been anyways, and he nurses a lot less frequently, so I'm actually able to leave him! It's been nice! He typically goes in happy and is happy when I pick him up.
He started doing the sit-up thing that Kayla did early this past month. Do all kids do this, or just mine? I've never seen any other kids doing this! He'll just squeeze his head up and sometimes his legs too! It's hilarious to watch! Clearly he sees us doing so many sit-ups that he's trying to imitate us, hahaha!!
He scootches whether on his back or on his belly, so while he's by no means mobile, he can move. About half way through this last month he started being able to roll from front to back and also back to front (consistently.... he'd done both more or less by accident previously). As of yet, he hasn't learned that if he keeps rolling in the same direction he'll be able to move somewhere! He's much more content to chill and move 180 degrees rather than rolling over. If he's all done with tummy-time he'll just lay his head down and wait to be picked up rather than roll himself over! This side of his personality is much more laid back than Kayla was!
He is sleeping much better these days, typically going 6-7 hours at night before waking up to eat, and then another 5 hour stretch. During the day he goes about 4-5 hours between nursings. That makes for about 5 times a day that we are nursing, occasionally 6 if he wakes up really early in the morning to nurse. He is still sleeping in the bassinette in our room. We are still unsure of when we'll move him into his crib. It's just so convenient to have him right there where we can settle him practically in our sleep if he requires it (which he doesn't often). This past month I've starting transitioning him from napping in the swing to napping in his crib. He is pretty good about falling asleep on his own, there is minimal crying. He falls asleep best when he pulls a blanket/stuffed animal over his face. I feel like I constantly pull the blanket away, only to have him pull it over again! He struggles sleeping more than 1 sleep cycle in his crib, though, waking after almost exactly 30 minutes.... if I leave him up there sometimes he'll just fall back asleep on his own after maybe 5 minutes, sometimes not. It's still a work in progress.
Also, we’d previously been swaddling him at bedtime and have stopped doing that now. He seems to be ok with it and is sleeping the same amount unswaddled as he was swaddled.
His eyes are still a beautiful bright blue. I forget at what age they can still change, so I thought I'd document that at 5 months, they are blue :)
We took him swimming for the first time at the YMCA, then at the water park at Michigan's Adventure, and then later in the month in Lake Michigan. He seemed to enjoy himself!
He is quite in love with Kayla - they laugh at each other all day long. He continues to be extremely tolerant of her man-handling of him. I love watching them interact, especially when I don't have to play referee.
He basically refuses to take a bottle. He's successfully taken a bottle once or twice in the past, but since I get long stretches between feedings, I don't really have a need to pump and bottle feed him, so he hasn't had many opportunities to try. However, I've started working at the bank again (short term) to help them out on days when David has off, and so he's tried to give him a bottle then. We've tried working on it at other times too, and he still just refuses it! He can hold off 7-8 hours until I am back and able to feed him again! Apparently he has a stubborn streak! He tried feeding him with a bottle, with a sippy cup, with a regular cup and he just refused, refused, refused! Not sure what to do about that problem. Thankfully he is nearly 6 months old and we'll be able to feed him some solid food to help fill that gap.
Lastly, this last month he got his 2 bottom teeth! The first tooth popped out at 4.5 months and then another tooth came a week or so later. The first one was a surprise: all of the sudden there was a sharp point in his mouth! The second one was troublesome for him. He would wake up in the middle of the night screaming, not wanting to nurse, but wanting to chew on our finger for counter-pressure on his gums, poor kid. With Kayla we really never had any trouble with her teething until her molars came in. So it is a new (and hopefully short lived) experience. It is really sad to hear him scream in pain like that!