Baby Owen- 5 months

Happy 5 months baby boy!!! You are just a chunky little delight!!!

Growing

-Weighs 16lbs even (according to my super accurate weigh myself, then hold him technique)

-Wears all 6 month clothes, but has grown out of that size jammies. The 6 month size is getting a little tight already too.

-No teeth yet, but he drools all the time and EVERYTHING is in his mouth. He loves to chew on my hands and fingers and arms and shoulder... I'm thinking it will be any day!!!

-Mastered rolling from his back to his tummy and does it all the time now!! 

"Whoa. I was just on my back!!"

-Is pushing up into a semi-crawling pose when he's on his tummy. He gets his knees under him, lifts his butt up in the air.... then flops back down and does the "swimming" move by moving his arms and legs. 

-Babbles all the time... chatty chatty, screech screech screech!! He is starting to make a few more consonant sounds... "Ah-ba" "bwa"... things like that. 

-Blows raspberries all the time! He was blowing raspberries back and forth with one of his teachers at school and was making another baby giggle and toot. I walk in and his teacher was in tears from laughing!

-He is a sensitive baby. He's very aware of where I am, and fusses if he sees me walk away, or hears my voice and I don't come to him. He does fine at school all day, but as soon as I walk in and he hears me, I have to immediately go to him or he'll get upset. He also will cry at school when other babies cry.. he gets upset for them. He likes to be with me and pulls my hair, pulls my face close, slobbers on me with his open mouth... he needs that physical touch a lot.

-He is a calm, chill baby though.. happy being held for long periods of time (unlike his tornado of an older brother who wanted down! down! down! all the time) and is easy to take places. He charms everyone!

Eating

-Starting solids! Such a big boy! He LOVES food. Oh man.. huge grin, grabs the spoon, shoves it in because apparently I'm not fast enough.. thumps his chest and squeals for more! We are starting simple.. cereal, banana... he's tried peas (didn't care for them) and sweet potato (it was ok).

-Sits in his chair at dinner with us and gets some food and some entertainment from Big Brother

-Nurses in the morning on my left side (I pump my right)... nurses at lunch (yeah for daycares at my work!!)... and in the evening when we get home. Then we nurse all weekend. 

-We upped his bottles at school and that has helped with the sleeping a lot. He is taking better naps and seems more content and settled during the day. He gets two 6oz breastmilk bottles at school. 

-Gets a 6oz formula bottle at bed, then I pump right before I go to bed. This has worked out awesome for us. He is WAY more settled at night and Neal and I take turns putting him to bed. Which is FANTASTIC because it means I can put Austin to bed on those nights! I haven't put my little man to bed since I was about 6 months pregnant. I missed it... 

-He is SUPER distracted while nursing now though. I can't talk or he pulls off and looks at me like "what??" Any noise distracts him.. or he just feels happy and unlatches and grins up at me like a fool in love. Last week he did this and I looked down at him and said "Mama. I'm Mama. Mama?" and every time I said "Mama?" he'd lay his head back on my boob and curl his body into mine like he was hugging me. MY HEART MELTED!!!!!

My view looking down all the time!!

Sleeping

-Nighttime is better. We are by no means getting 10 hours of straight sleep, but I'm not up every hour trying to nurse and get him settled. 

-We moved his bedtime earlier, so he is now down between 7-7:30 (before it was 8:30) and this has helped. He gets his bottle, settled in his crib, and he's usually out for about 4-5 hours. Then he is up to eat again and is settled until 5-6 am.. some days I have to wake him at 6 to nurse before school, sometimes he's up on his own at 5 and I nurse him while I'm pumping. 

-Sleeps with his arms unswaddled now! He seems to like it much better. 

-Still a cat napper and I think I have to just accept that. Weekends are tough because we do the whole "spend a lot of time for a little sleep" routine a lot. It can be really frustrating to spend 30 mins soothing him down to get a 15 minute nap. But he wakes up super happy and doesn't act cranky, so this just must be what he needs!

No sleep.. so let's take a selfie!!

-He will take a longer morning nap though.. usually an hour, maybe an hour and a half. So we get one good nap out of him!

-Naps better at school.. his naps there are usually about an hour, and he takes 3 of them a day.

Playing

-There are some great, wonderful, sweet things about the newborn days.. but I'm an "older baby" person for sure. Owen is getting to be so much more fun now! He giggles and laughs all the time. 

-Recognizes himself in mirrors and loves to play "who's that sweet baby???" with me (see mirror selfie pic above). So much fun!

-Likes his exer-saucer toy and hangs out in it.. laughing at Austin and Daddy wrestling or laughing at that silly little monkey that spins around. 

-Spends a lot of play time on his tummy now.. reaching for toys, grabbing and eating blankets.. being delighted with himself... 

-Still loves his butterfly toy in the car. I won't drive without that thing! He doesn't cry in the car very much anymore (thank goodness!).. he's pretty content playing with butterfly and chatting.. 

-Still loves bathtime... sometimes we have family bathtime with Austin in the tub, Owen in his tub, me and Neal squeezed in the bathroom.. music playing. We rock out. Ha. He is a major splasher and gets everything around him soaked!

Austin likes to come supervise baths

Chatting and chewing on washcloths and soaking the bathroom!

Well... there you go.. 5 months have gone by already! This is the stage I really enjoy, like I said. I'm looking forward to the next 7 months.. seeing Owen grown and change and learn and start to move.. and probably continue to never nap.... but oh well. He's a happy, healthy, chunky little love!!!