Five Months

"Emma, what's it like being 5 months old?"

"I don't know. Not much different from 4.75 months old. Should I feel different?"

"My turtle. I show you it."

"Maybe. You know, Mommy looks different. She's got more silver in her hair and big chunks of her hair are missing. Daddy says she's shedding or something. Also, she has bags under her eyes all the time."

"Huh. Do you think her hair went silver when we were born?" Looks nervous.

"Naaah. I think Caitlin probably started it. I wonder what Mommy used to look like?"

"What?!"

"Probably worse."

"I think you're right. I think I'll go get some milk."

Five months brings us back to the "normal" sleep pattern. Emma and Logan are now falling asleep at 8:30 pm and Emma sleeps until 4 am. Logan, on the other hand, wakes at 10:30, 1ish, almost 4 and then I have to wrestle with tandem nursing while flat on my back in bed. My back, in response, has been killing me! Or at least maiming me.

On the bright side, they've been napping more regularly during the day. It started while I was at the conference and makes me wonder if that was coincidental or serendipitous. That separating them for a few days got them both interested in/used to napping in the mid-morning and again in the afternoon. At home it doesn't seem to last as long, but at least they're laying flat, in a crib or co-sleeping and knocking out long enough for me to catch a shower. And I...I'm really fond of showering!

Everything goes in their mouths. Napkins, toys, the cats, my head, their siblings. Everything. It's both cute and drooly! Domino is handling the attention pretty well, far better than I would have guessed. I am very grateful for this.

Nom!

Must. Chew. Napkin!

They're both still falling over when placed in a sitting position, but they really want to be in a sitting position. I feel like they're losing millions of braincells every time they slip over and go Thunk! onto the floor. Poor little noggins!

Remaining braincells focussed on figuring stuff out.

Logan is really enjoying solid food. The rice cereal makes him very happy. Unfortunately, his poop now smells...like...poop. Bleah! Emma says she is happy to have any extra shares of milk laying around on his side of the boobs. Waste not, want not!

"Maybe...

if I suck really hard...

rice cereal will come out of this thing."

Toes are very exciting to both of them, but Logan has been kicking his feet up and grabbing them like Emma was a week or two ago. I suspect he'll be flipping over from back to tummy pretty soon.

Feet!

Last night something was up. Emma woke up around 11:30 pm and decided that it was time to Paaaaaarty! She started singing, bouncing and chatting up a storm. It lasted for hours. I swear, I had one mug of Earl Grey tea and it was at 9:30 AM. Like, the morning! This should not have had such a profound effect at midnight, but I can't fathom why else she would have been so relentlessly awake. I read this and wondered about it some more. It's also possible that it's not tea related but is instead a sign of big changes coming. Like crawling.

Dr. Sears says:

Major developmental milestones, such as sitting, crawling, and walking, drive babies to "practice" their new developmental skills in their sleep.
-- #8 of 8 INFANT SLEEP FACTS EVERY PARENT SHOULD KNOW

Hold me!