5 Months Old!

Joshua turned 5 months old last Friday. On time for once, here's an update:

He's getting more and more active. He reaches for anything he can grab. This makes eating with him on the lap quite an experience. We haven't been doing too many "solid" food meals lately, although we have been trying a spoonful of sweet potatoes every day for the past three days. He doesn't seem too excited about them yet, so we may go back to rice and pears. He tried a bite of applesauce the other day and it made for some classic facial expressions.

As far as stats go, I'm going to have to guess. He's about 16 lbs, and probably around 28 inches long. We just packed up the 3/6 month clothes and got out the 6/9 month clothes, although some of the 6/9 month sleepers are already almost too short! I'm excited to dress him in cute summery outfits so I can see his thigh rolls more often to pinch them. :)

Joshua babbles a ton, especially when we're on walks with the baby bjorn and sometimes in the regular stroller, too. The tireder he gets, the louder he gets. Speaking of louder, he's learned how to yell and scream when he's happy, which makes his sad yells and screams that much louder. Time to invest in earplugs?

Joshua still goes to bed at 8:30 or 9 and will sleep solid until 4, 5, or 6am, wake up for a feeding, and then go back to sleep for another 3 to 4 hours. Lately, though, he's been waking up at 11:30 or 12 (or both!) screaming his head off and writhing around. So I have to go in there and pick him up to calm him down and then he'll go right back to sleep (I don't feed him then, though). I'm not sure what that's all about, but I'm not a huge fan except for the cuddling with him once he calms down.

He's still not rolling over yet, but he'll roll onto his side from his back sometimes, but doesn't seem to have any desire to go past that. He's almost sitting up on his own though, and when sitting in a lap, he'll usually strain to sit up (as in, not leaning back against you).

He's a very social baby and loves to be held by anyone. He grins and anyone that gives him any attention and will laugh his head off at people, too. In the carseat, he loves to tell his hands and toy's what's what, especially right before he drifts off to sleep. It's really funny to see him get that stern look and hear him grumble at his hands.

I think that's about it for the update, so here's a great video of his new yelling and screaming fun.

Eating and Raspberries Don't Mix Well

I tried feeding Joshua rice cereal and pears when he first turned 4 months old (end of April), but then we went to California for the weekend and we took a break from eating "solids" and didn't pick it up again until this week. Between then and now, Joshua has learned to blow raspberries with his tongue (you know...sticking your tongue out and making a "thbthbthbthbthbthb" sound...). Well, today we tried rice cereal again, and Joshua thought it was SO fun to do that with food in his mouth...I thought it was pretty funny, too. So I ran to get the camera to catch it on video, but then, of course he stopped doing it. If you watch to the end, he does it a few times though. This is actually the first eating experience I got on video, too.

The Bee's Knees

Last year a bumble bee flew into our fireplace (I'm assuming from the chimney) and got stuck there, since I have our fireplace covered with that plastic shrink-wrap stuff for windows to help weatherproof them, since we can't use our fireplace anyway. Yeah, last year we got three truckloads of firewood for free, then got our chimney inspected and were told that if we had a fire in the fireplace, our chimney, and then roof would catch on fire. So I covered it with shrink wrap to keep the drafts out in the winter.

Anyway, that poor bumble bee died and I never got around to taking off the shrink-wrap to get it out. The other day a whole hive of honeybees decided to pay their respects to the dead bumblebee. There were probably about 10 bees in there humming and buzzing around. Half of the honeybees got out one by one through a tiny hole at the top, and I caught them and put them outside. The rest died within an hour :( R.I.P.

And here's a video of the bees with me mumbling about something in the background

4 Months - Doctor Appointment, Stats, Shots

And by "tomorrow," I really meant "in two weeks." You have no clue what I'm talking about?...I thought so.

Joshua had his 4 month check up at the doctor's office on April 28th. I'd love to say it went off without a hitch, but then entered the insurance woes. The woes that we don't have any. Doctors sure are expensive. Long story short, we thought we were getting one insurance at his 2 month appointment, so we told them so, and so they gave him his shots, etc. Then I got the bill for like $800 because we didn't end up going with that company because they denied Dave coverage because he has back problems related to Spine Abifida Acolta. Soooo since we had told them we were getting insurance they gave us the "expensive" shots at his 2 month appointment. After many stressful tears on my end, we applied for CHIP and went to his 4 month appointment assuming we wouldn't get it, so they gave us the "cheap" shots (expensive and cheap shots are exactly the same, but the state gives them the cheap shots for those without insurance) and gave us a discount on the other fees ($14 to give a shot?! lots more to look in his mouth and ears and say he's growing great?!...I need to switch careers!).

Was that short enough?

Joshua is growing wonderfully, which is what any mother loves to hear and brag about. He's 27 inches long (95%ile...we're not surprised), he weighs 14 lbs 15 oz (50%ile), and his head is 43.5 cm (75%ile).

Joshua started eating "solid foods" the day before his appointment, because the doctor suggested that. He has eaten some rice cereal mixed with breastmilk, and some blended up canned pears. We did rice cereal for 3 days and then pears for 3 days. I wouldn't suggest feeding your baby pears 3 days in a row. I have pictures of the results if anyone feels so inclined (email me). He gobbled it all down like a champ (once he got used to the spoon idea). That was put on hold when we went to California last weekend, and hasn't been picked back up again yet.

He sleeps like a champ as well. He has been going to bed around 8:30 or 9pm every night and usually sleeps solid at least until 3am, but sometimes we can push it to 5am or 6am. If he wakes up at 3am, sometimes I can get him back to sleep with just a binky, but sometimes he's just too hungry to sleep. Then he'll wake up again around 5 or 6am and I'll feed him again, and then he'll go back to sleep until 7:30 or 8 or 8:30. Then he's usually up for the day. Not too bad, if I do say so myself. Now I just need to work on getting myself in bed at a decent hour and sleeping the whole night through.

I got Joshua a playmat for $10 or $15 (can't remember) and ever since he has been very grabby. It's like he just needed that mat for him to realize that he has hands. He grabs at anything in his reach - toys, hair, fingers, cell phones, food, plates, computers, burp cloths, etc. Then whatever he is strong enough to lift (e.g: cell phone is too heavy), ends up in his mouth (unless we take it away first). However, he hasn't figured out how to turn an object the correct way, so it's usually just his hand in his mouth, with whatever is in his hand facing the other way.

He also enjoys his bumbo and walker, and the new views that they bring. I spend most of the day trying to make him laugh. Some sure fire ways are "sneezing", making funny noises, lightly tossing him in the air, and swinging him back and forth by his hands and feet (that one always always always gets him giggling).

Every time I put him in his crib to sleep, he always grabs his blanket and pulls it up close to his chin. I have had to figure out a way to get it so it won't cover up his face when he sleeps. It takes some tricky tucking.

And that's it for his 4 month update.