Our Regular Life: Rachel: 5 Months

Rachel is 5 months today!

In the past month, she has:

gotten really good at 'tummy time', much to Laura's enjoyment. "Let's have a tummy time!!" she says. (Laura has particularly latched onto this idea since we set up Rachel's toys we bought in Disney World when she was still a fetus, because Laura has been begging to play with them for the past 7 months.) And, subsequently, for the first time since the first time at 3.5 weeks, rolled over from front to back again! Josh had her in the basement while Laura and I were cooking and then we heard him say, "Hey! You rolled over!". So Laura and I rushed downstairs to see her do it again:

slept through the night, from 10pm to 7am. Once. In her magical fleece sleep sack that Grandma made. I think she might have done 10pm to 6am one night, too - she always sleeps better in it than anything else. So, we were starting to make progress in the sleeping-through-the-night department, but the last week or two she has been having trouble breathing due to allergens of some sort in the air, and she is back to waking up several times a night again with a stuffy nose. And so I am back to being one very tired mama. She goes to bed around 7:30, or whenever we put Laura to bed, and is very good at putting herself to sleep. I can put her down wide awake, no nursing needed, and she just sucks at her left arm (yes, at, not on - strange, I know) and usually drifts off to sleep problem-free. I dream feed her when we go to bed at around 10:30 - 11:00, and then, depending on the night, may wake up as few as zero times, or as many as three. Hopefully we'll get back down closer to the zero mark soon.

slowly started to reach for objects while seated and sometimes will even put them in her mouth. I remember Laura doing this a lot earlier, but then again, Rachel was born a month early, so I suppose she is entitled to be a little slower at some things. Apparently by four months they should be reaching for objects, and she had done it by that point, but it definitely wasn't a regular thing. It is happening a lot more often now, though. And just very recently (like, within the last week) she has become more interested in putting things in her mouth. Just in time for sickness season. Yay.

started pulling herself up into a self-supported sit when propped up on the couch. Though she only just started rolling over again, she has been practicing her sitting up already! (I feel like this is such a more advanced milestone, but hey, she might sit up before she rolls back to front!) She is getting closer to being able to sit up on her own on the floor, too. I bet she'll have it before the month is out.

having little tastes here and there of solid food. She sits in the high chair with us at dinner time, so I've started popping a grain of rice in her mouth or some other miniscule taste of something. 95% of the time she pushes it back out, so I'm not counting this as her real first food, yet.
I have started slowly getting the baby food factory up and running again. So far I have pureed salmon, which she will get first, probably sometime within the next month, and squash and sweet potato are next on the menu. Laura had already demonstrated she was ready for solids by the time she was five months, but I feel like Rachel is not quite there, yet. So we will wait until she is closer to the six month mark. I would like to try more of a baby-led weaning approach this time because weaning Laura turned into a hell of an experience that I do not want to repeat. So, Rachel will get a variety of finger foods, as well, that she can feed herself.

really started loving her big sister! Their relationship is really blossoming, and it is so sweet. (I'm only slightly jealous that she seems to prefer her sister over her mama most of the time now.) Where I used to get the huge grins, they are now reserved for her favourite sister. She also gets the giggles and baby shrieks and squeals.

been making strange. Oh my, has she ever! She is a regular little mama's girl these days! We had a visit with Grandma a couple weeks back, but Rachel was having none of it; someone peeked into her stroller one day when we were out shopping and she just lost it (like, full on hysterical screaming. Because someone that wasn't me looked at her. Drama, drama!); and today, when the Canadian Baby Photographer came, she was beyond uncomfortable (again, with the hysterics). The guy actually just gave up and said she was too old for that kind of photography shoot. (Which, if I can rant for a moment, makes me mad because I called them to make an appointment when she was the right age and they told me that they did not have a photographer in our area anymore, and implied it wouldn't be happening. So I booked Rachel for 6 month professional photos at a different studio. Their loss, I guess.)

gone swimming for the first time in a pool. We took her to the YMCA because they have a 'leisure pool' that is approximately the temperature of bath water, and, I wouldn't go as far as saying she loved it, but she didn't scream bloody murder like she did every time we dipped her toes in the lake this summer, so that's a start! No pictures, sadly, as they have a no camera policy. We will be enrolling her in swimming lessons in the winter semester at our regular pool.

Our Regular Life