Abigail turned 5 months old on Tuesday! We are creeping up on half a year with her, which blows my mind. She has hit several milestones this month and is starting to be much more interactive. We all love her so much!
I don’t have any official stats for Abigail this month (our scale is still in storage, and we don’t go back to the doctor for another month!), but I’d guess she weighs somewhere between 11-12 pounds. I can tell her belly has grown this month, and her thighs are getting some extra rolls too :) She is nursing about every 3-4 hours during the day and doing great with it. She eats pretty quickly like her big sisters did. She spits up a decent bit after she eats like Savannah did, but so far it doesn’t seem like it’s bothering her or causing any pain. I’m thankful that it’s just a laundry issue! Abigail is still wearing size 1 diapers, but I’m guessing she’ll be in size 2s by the time she is 6 months old. She is fitting into 0-3 month and 3 month clothes really well these days. She wore her first pair of shoes a couple of weeks ago (size 1s), and they were way too big but stayed on because I tied the laces tight enough ;)
Abigail has made some progress in the sleeping department this month! She CAN sleep for 6-8 hours straight at night, but it’s generally hit or miss whether she’ll do that or not. More often, she wakes up somewhere between 1-3 AM, and I’ll end up feeding her and putting her back down to sleep until closer to the morning. We have tried off and on to get her used to sleeping in her crib, but so far she hasn’t taken too well to it. I think she really prefers the snug feeling of the Rock n’ Play, but I know she won’t be able to use it much longer. We just stopped swaddling her in the last couple of days and are using the Zipadeezip blanket now when she sleeps (a swaddle transition blanket). The first day with it was rough, but she’s done much better since then!
During the day, she will generally stay awake for about an hour or a little longer at a time before she’s ready for a nap. Most of the time, it is pretty easy to put her down in the Rock n’ Play with her paci and she goes off to sleep on her own. Last week, I got fed up with the Soothie pacifier she was using (the kind they use in the hospital) and made the switch to the Mam pacis like Savannah has used. The Mam pacis are so much better, in my opinion, so I’m glad she’s taking them without a problem now. It’s a bit harder to get her to go to sleep when we are out and about (she’ll stay awake for hours at a time on Sundays when we are at church), but as long as we are home, she naps pretty easily.
Abigail is such a sweet and easy going baby! I may be biased, but after experiencing a “colicky” baby, Abigail has spoiled us so far by how content she generally is. Sometimes I feel guilty that I can’t give Abigail as much attention as I’d like to because I’m constantly breaking up squabbles between her sisters, taking Savannah to the potty, or getting something for somebody, but she doesn’t seem to mind just hanging out and watching the chaos unfold ;) And it helps that she still naps pretty frequently too. But, when she’s awake, she doesn’t mind just sitting in her bouncer seat or lying on the activity mat by herself for a while. I’ve caught her staring at her hands a few times, so I think she’s discovering that she can use them to swat at things now :) She has recently started batting at the toys on the activity mat and will even grab on to them sometimes. She loves kicking her legs too and is starting to bear weight on them when we stand her up.
Abigail’s biggest new “accomplishments” this month are that she’s started giggling and can roll over from tummy to back now! She giggled for the first time on New Year’s Eve when we were at my parents’ house. Travis was tickling her tummy, and she just started giggling at him. I caught a little bit of it on video! Since then, she has really only giggled one other time (earlier this week when Savannah was helping me give her a bath), so I guess we’re not very funny most of the time ;) She rolled over for the first time on Monday, the day before she turned 5 months old. I put her down for tummy time, and she immediately threw her head over and rolled onto her back. She then did it 3 more times in a row, and when Travis came in to get a video of it, of course she wouldn’t do it anymore (and hasn’t since then). But, she’s definitely making progress! She’s holding her head up really well during tummy time and can look all around while lying there. I’ve also noticed that she’s gotten a lot better recently at following us with her eyes if we are moving around the room.
I’d say overall that Abigail is a pretty quiet baby at this point. She will smile and coo at us if we are looking at her up close, and she’s also started squealing some too. Other than that, she’s pretty content just to sit back and observe what’s going on around her. The main times she cries are when she is tired or hungry (of course) or sometimes when I’m burping her. She doesn’t even cry when I get her out of the bath tub! It may just be the dry winter air, but I’ve noticed that her skin is pretty dry right now, and she has several rashy spots (eczema) on her arms and legs. She also has really bad cradle cap. We were using a prescription scalp oil that we got from the pediatrician, but it was only supposed to be used for a month, so the cradle cap has come back with a vengeance. We are trying some natural oils now to see if that will help, but if not, I may have to see what else the pediatrician recommends doing for it. It doesn’t seem to bother her, but it looks pretty terrible. I feel like her hair is starting to fill in on the top of her head, but she still has a big bald spot in the back :) I think her eyes are definitely brown at this point, so it looks like Savannah will be our only blue-eyed girl of the bunch.
We are so thankful to have you, Abigail! Since you’re our last baby, I’m trying to soak up all the sweet moments with you that I can (even the middle-of-the-night ones). As I’ve learned firsthand, sometimes the days go by slow, but the years definitely go by fast!
