On Wednesday, my little guy turned 5 months old! Where is the time going? He is growing so quickly! He is currently weighing about 16 lbs 10 oz, so not too far away from doubling his birth weight of 8 lbs 7 oz! Most babies double their birth weight around 5-6 months, so it would seem he is right on schedule.
In developmental news, he is in the hard-core grabbing stage. He grabs everything he sees and, after fully examining it, puts it in his mouth. He even grabs at our faces! He loves to pull on our lips and cheeks or to simply touch our faces. I have to keep a close eye on him though, as he has grabbed pencils off the desk, and I’m afraid he will poke his eye! He also tries to grab food off my plate. He doesn’t like it when I take things away from him though – he usually lets out a little protest at first, but then is very easily sidetracked with whatever toy I give him in its place. He will also lean forward as far as he can in an attempt to reach something. And he just started reaching out to us when he wants us to pick him up! I reached out to him to see if he would reach back, and he did it! He now does that quite often.
He seems to be on a rolling strike. He rolled for the first time early on, and was doing it regularly enough by the time he was 4 months old. However, he seems to have no interest in doing it now. I have heard that sometimes when babies master a skill, they will often stop doing it for a while. If I put him on his tummy, which he doesn’t seem to mind nearly as much as he did when he was really little, he raises his butt in the air and tries to scoot himself forward, but he doesn’t even try to roll anymore, not even to his side! The exception is if he is trying to get a better view of something – then he will maneuver himself to whatever position is needed.
He is getting better and better at sitting. He still doesn’t sit unassisted for too long, but he can do it in short spurts, and it doesn’t take much support for him to be able to sit up! If I put a pillow behind him so that he is mostly reclined, he will generally pull himself to an upright sitting position, and the pillow is enough to keep him stable, even though it is not fully supporting him.
As he has seemed so interested in our food (he goes crazy when we eat sometimes), does great with the spoon with cereal, and is sitting so well, I decided to go ahead and let him have a taste of some solids a little earlier than I had planned. I’m only giving him very small amounts – really just enough to let him taste it since it makes him so happy. Plus, as he still isn’t eating well at daycare, I want to do what I can to make sure he is getting enough calories. Anyway, I gave him his first bit of avocado on Tuesday, and he loved it! I gave him another bite of it the next day, and he enjoyed it again. However, he was fussy after eating it, and after ruling out an ear infection and teething, I am thinking the avocado didn’t set well in his tummy. So, I decided to try that again in another month or so to see if he does better with it. Last night I gave him a tiny bit of banana, and he isn’t fussy today. He doesn’t like banana as well as avocado, though!
I said in the previous paragraph that we had ruled out teething. Well, I am pretty sure he is in the teething process, which can last for months. And our pediatrician said it is possible that his gums are causing him some irritation. However, I was informed that if he were about to pop a tooth, his gums would be red and swollen, and almost look as though they had been bitten by a bug. His gums do not look like that at all. So while I think his gums are bothering him enough to cause some restlessness, we haven’t even come close to seeing the worst yet. Other than a few days this week, he hasn’t been fussy at all though. And, as I mentioned, we now think the fussing may be due to the avocado.
Last week, I mentioned I was too busy to write a full post. Part of that is because we traded in our Yaris for a 2011 Honda CRV! I’ll post some pictures below. We are very excited to have it, as it makes driving with a baby much more comfortable, and I also feel safer. We got an amazing deal on it, and the interest was so low (practically nonexistent) that our payment is lower on a brand new vehicle than it would have been on a used!
We bought it from some really good friends (the husband sells cars for Honda), and we had to drive to Kentucky to get it. Liam did so well on our trip – he really only fussed once on the way home. Other than that, he played or slept the entire time. He also did great on Memorial Day – we drove to visit Nathan’s family, and in spite of getting very little sleep, he stayed in good spirits!
Here are some pictures from this week.
Visiting Big Sister on Memorial Day
Great-Grandma Hazel Frank
"I love my exersaucer!'
Thinking up some mischievous plan, no doubt!
"Where are you taking my avocado???"
Bye-bye, Yaris!
Hello, CRV!
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