Tuesday, January 4, 2011

5 Months Old


Adelia turned five months old yesterday. The picture above is not her happiest face ever, but I still think she looks cute. She's chubby as ever too, and I love it. She weighs 18 pounds we found out. We had to take her in to the doctor because she also has her first ear infection.

She's doing loads better in the car seat these days, for which I am eternally grateful. She's getting a lot easier to take places, because she usually won't scream or cry, unless she's hungry or something startles her. She's getting better at letting me give her floor time, but still likes to have me pretty close while she's playing. She loves her jumpy seat and her Bumbo chair, which has been great for me because it means I don't have to carry her all day every day, like I was doing previously.


She's doing about the same as far as sleeping. Still going to bed between 10-11 most nights. Occasionally she'll go earlier, around 8 or 9, but not usually. She's still waking up 1 to 2 times at night to eat. But the progress we've made in the sleeping department this month, is that now if she's sleepy, we can lay her down in her bed while she's still awake, and she will put herself to sleep most of the time. It doesn't work if she's not sleepy, or if she has a bubble, but still...that fact that it does sometimes work is comforting. Also, we've let her cry herself to sleep a few times. Usually in the middle of the night, after one of us has already fed her, changed her, and burped her, and she still won't go to sleep, then we just lay her down and she cries a little and then goes to sleep. She's never cried longer than a half hour before falling asleep, and usually it's less than 10 minutes. This is good news for those of us in the house suffering from sleep exhaustion (Aaron and I). We've debated about trying to get her off of her night time feedings, since she's now at an age/weight where there is no health reason why she needs to be eating at night, but I don't think either of us are really up for it yet.


The best news of all is that Adelia is weened! Hooray! Judge me how you will, but I think nursing is miserable. It saps all my energy, kills my back, makes me moody as all get out, and leaves me thirsty and starving on a regular basis. Not to mention the headaches. And Adelia was to a point where she refused to nurse under a blanket, which made feeding her anywhere but at home a nightmare. Really though, the final straw was when she bit me. No, she doesn't have teeth, but those gums are killers. She bit me once and that was the end. I pumped for her for awhile after that, but pumping requires a pretty dedicated schedule if you are going to keep your supply up, and I knew once we went on vacation that any schedule I thought I had would go right out the window. And it did, and I didn't stress about it. And now I'm done. This go around, I'm not feeling guilty, and I'm not letting anyone else make me feel guilty either. I nursed her for just shy of 5 months, which is a lot longer than I thought I would go, and I am very proud of my accomplishment. I am also very glad to be done. Besides, Adi is less spitty and less gassy on the formula anyway, so it makes life easier all around.

The saddest news of all is that Adelia's hair is no longer curly. And it's growing in blond. I knew it would happen sooner or later. I loved it while it lasted, and I am going to miss it. But, if I want to look at it on the bright side, she has a lot of really cute headbands and bows to help hide her hair while it's trying awkwardly to grow out. And whenever I imagine calling her Adi, I imagine a little blondy with pigtails, so it's going to help her out in the nickname department. (I keep pushing for Adi to be her nickname, and Aaron just isn't catching on, or picking it up...)

Adelia hasn't rolled over yet, but I think she's almost interested in trying. She can arch her back really far, and scoot around in a circle if she's laying on her tummy. So I'm betting it won't be too long. Heaven help me when I have three mobile children!

1 comment:

Sierra said...

Don't ever let anyone else make you feel like an inferior mother because you do things differently tahn they do. You are not a bad mother because you weened her. Every child is different, as is every mother. Some people can do it for almost a year and have no problems. Some people can never breast feed at all. It sounds like it was a perfect time for her to be weened, especially now that she is old enough for food. She is a doll... I just want to pinch those chubby cheeks!