Ellison- 5 Months

Ellie is 5 months today.  I just love this baby stage.  I love the 5-8 month range when they are learning new things, able to eat foods and learning to crawl.  Ellie continues to be a happy baby and is easily amused, especially by big sister who unfortunately does not think a giggling little sister is as cute as I do. 

She rides in the car just okay now.  If we travel any distance it is best to do it at nap time. 

 Sleep-  getting better.  She goes down for the night around 8:30 and has been doing 5-7 hrs for her first stretch.  She will then do about 2 hr increments after that and wake up for good in the morning between 6 and 7.  She is never fussy during the night and goes right to bed after I nurse her.  I did a little bit of sleep training that if she woke up too early, I didn't feed her.  She wasn't too happy about that.  I also put her in warmer pj's which seemed to help as well.  Maybe she was just cold???  We all picked up round two of colds, so Ellie is way stuffy by morning.  That certainly isn't helping the sleep department.  Poor thing is only 5 months old and has had a cold for the last month straight.  We no joke were not completely over the first cold and we got a second one.   Naps-  not quite regular because we are busies in the morning.  If we are home she will usually take a long morning nap and another afternoon nap.  If she catches a short morning nap while we are on the go she will take a long mid day nap with a little pick me up early evening/late afternoon.

Eating-  she takes a bottle of pumped breast milk during the day and then nurses in the middle of the night and upon waking in the morning.   She drinks 3-4oz at a time whenever I think she may be hungry.  She eats really well, however the cereal seems to harden her poops too much so she only gets cereal once every other day.  There hasn't been a baby food that she has refused to eat.

Size- she has grown out of most of her 3-6 month clothing.  She wears a size 2 diaper and a 3 at night.  I don't change her diaper in the middle of the night in order to keep her in sleep mode, so she needs that extra protection.  Lately she has peed out her 2's at nap time so as soon as we get through the 2's I'm going to bump her up.  I'm going to have a 2 year old and a 5 month old in size 3's!!

Milestones-  sits unsupported, rolls front to back and back to front, rocks on her hands and kees, blows razzberries, coos, tries to pick up small objects, likes to stand, laughs, shakes rattles, pulls around in a cricle, works to get a toy out of reach

She has stranger danger and little tolerance for other people holding her, including Wade.  She is starting to dislike her little tub, which stinks because she is a little too unsteady yet in the big tub and it is really hard to lean over the tub to hold her.  She loves her bouncer and to get out to see new places.