The Michael Family Musings: Mia, Month Five

Stats:
Weight: approximately 14 pounds. More exact weight next month at her Dr. appointment.

Height: 26.5 inches long

Size: 6 months and 6-9 months for clothes and size 2 diapers.

Appearance: Her hair continues to get a little longer on the top, and the bald spots on the back of her head are starting to fill in. In the sunlight her hair is very bright red; inside it’s more of a strawberry blonde. I swear her eye color changes every single day, but it’s a greenish-blue at the moment. She also has a small brown fleck on the top of her right iris. Mia is SO long! She outgrows most of her clothes just because she’s too long to wear them (not based on weight, as baby clothes are mostly sized). She’s a string bean just like her daddy!

Food:

We are still exclusively breastfeeding! Just a month more to go to meet my goal of 6 months of exclusive breastfeeding! She’s had a few pumped bottles this month when we were out and about and the night that Jason and I went to a concert, but other than that, she strictly nurses. When she is awake, she’s pretty regularly feeding every 2 hours. Occasionally she’ll make it 2.5-3 hours, but this is pretty rare anymore. I try and pump 2-3 times per week to keep a stock for an upcoming trip I’m taking next month. It will be my first overnight away from Mia, and I want to make sure her daddy is good and stocked up!

She does seem very curious about our eating habits. When we’re eating dinner, she always watches so intently. One Saturday morning, we went out for breakfast and Mia was sitting in my lap (because she was over her car seat at this point) and she wanted to touch all of my utensils, the plate, and my cup. It was really cute to see her so curious, but tricky to keep her little hands from getting sticky syrup all over them J

Sleep:

We have had a little bit of sleep regression this month. Between teething, growth spurts and gas, it’s been a bit of a rough month for us. My poor baby!

MOST nights, Mia goes to bed around 10 pm and sleeps until 7 or 8 am the next morning. When she does wake up in the morning, it’s 50/50 whether she’ll go back to sleep after feeding or not. When she does, it’s usually for no more than 2 hours. We’ve had a few nights where she woke up once or twice in the night wanting to be fed, but she generally goes right back to sleep after eating.

She still does not nap regularly. She’s pretty much the queen of micro naps. She usually takes 3 or 4 10-minute naps every day, usually while she’s nursing. It’s very rare that we get a crib nap. Usually when she does nap, it’s in her car seat, in the baby carrier, or while being held. I do try to put her in her crib twice a day for “quiet time” in the hopes that she’ll at least associate that with relaxing. It generally lasts 20-30 minutes before she’s had enough.

She is still sleeping in her crib at night. There was one night that we brought her into our room because she was so fussy and kept waking up, but other than that, she’s been fine in her crib.

She does sleep on her tummy now. I put her in the crib on her back, but she always rolls over at some point. It makes me really nervous, but she’s good at turning her head to the side. Still I usually wake up a few times a night to check on her J

Milestones:

Mia is a rolling machine! Front to back, back to front, all over the place. She rolls while we’re changing her too which makes it tricky.

She still doesn’t like tummy time (which is strange since she likes sleeping on her tummy) so she usually rolls onto her back.

She’s half-way crawling. Her knees and butt are always in the right position, but she hasn’t quite figured out that she has to push up on her hands too. I’m okay with her being non-mobile for a bit longer! Our house isn’t baby proof yet J

Everything has to go into her mouth now. Toys, fingers, her passy, her toes, socks, clothes, she’s not picky.

She’s starting to get interested in toys now. Her favorite toy right now is a soft rattle shaped like a cheetah.

Mia loves to be sitting upright! Thankfully her Nana got her a Bumbo chair, so that makes my job a little easier during playtime. She’s able to sit unsupported for about 5 seconds.

She also loves standing. I get most of the housework done during the day while she plays in her bouncer. She also likes to stand on our legs. She’s really great at supporting her on weight on her legs.

She’s starting getting really interested in grabbing faces; she loves daddy’s whiskers!

Recently she’s started letting me go for walks with her in the carrier. She didn’t really like it before and would cry whenever we put her in it, but she’s okay with it now and usually falls asleep while I walk.

She’s starting to get clingier, to me in particular. There are some days where she just doesn’t want to get put down.

She’s still a little chatter box! No new consonant sounds that I can detect, but she ‘talks’ a lot more now and she loves to squeal and scream!

She rubs her eyes when she’s sleepy.

Things I want to remember about this month:

Her love for new places and new people! She is so curious about everything now, and it’s so fun to watch her interact with her world.

This is not really a positive thing, but I want to remember that she is always cranky between 7 pm and when she goes to bed. If only she’d nap! Hopefully one day I’ll look back on this from the perspective of a mom with a napping baby J

All of her ‘yoga’ poses. It amazes me how flexible babies are!

The specialness of the time that I get to bond with her during breastfeeding. Yes, it might be a hassle to plan our lives around feeding time, but I love getting to have that time with her.

How she always wants to grab things. This goes along with her beautiful curiosity.

Even in utero she was an extremely active baby. I gave her the nickname “Wiggles” when she was a few days old, and it suits her well. The girl loves to move!