Claire at Five Months!

This blog has totally turned into a monthly spy on my kid session!  That's okay.  I've been scrapbooking (until my tape runner broke, but I just bought a new one, so, I'm back, baby!)  I also have been making baby food--that'll be an upcoming post!  Oh, and apparently I'm invited to a baby shower for a expecting Momma on Matt's side of the family, so I'm going to make a taggy blanket and possibly a hat for her.  So I swear I'll be doing more than marveling over my child very soon!

Oohhh... what do you have THERE!?

But while we're here, let's marvel over Claire, shall we?  At five months she is knocking out 2-3 servings of cereal a day (rice and oatmeal, now).  She's given up her 10 o'clock feeding, so she's sleeping from about 7 pm until 5:30 am or so.  We had good success this weekend getting her to sleep in until about 7:30-8, but during the weekday we have to wake her up.  She usually takes two good naps a day: one in the morning usually starting around 9 or 10 (depending on weekend/weekday) and then again in the afternoon.  She usually naps around an hour to hour and a half.

A little messy feeding with the left hand to get a picture--usually now there is very little mess.

The eating thing is getting ridiculous.  She went from casual chomper to full blown angry hungry baby bird!  We skipped a few weeks of cereal feeding because she was so sick with a cough and drainage (coughing and baby food is quite the disaster).  When we started back, she started back with a vengeance.  We got the okay to start oatmeal when we took her in for an ear infection (more on that in a few).  I was worried to start oatmeal because so many experts advice to hold off on it until after 6 months.  We won't start barley until then, but I feel okay doing the oatmeal now.  She really really likes it.  She will babble, eat, and cry for more when we're out of cereal.  She definitely knows when it is "cereal o'clock"!

Notice that wide open mouth!  If you don't get the spoon in there in about a second, she'll also start making some noises!  Loud noises!

So, yeah, that ear infection.  We all got sick here during spring break, and I ended up with an ear infection.  We were all on antibiotics, so we thought we were good, since Claire had just finished her course before Matt and I got sick.  Unfortunately, that was not the case, and she got an ear infection.  Well, I had been suspecting that she might be teething.  Thanks to my mother's notes from my baby days, I knew I started teething between four and five months.  So when she started chewing on her finger, I figured that might be something.  Then she got fussy.  We weren't sure if she was sick, so Matt took her to the doctor and she thought she felt teeth, but there was definitely an ear infection (more antibiotics, whohoo).  But then low and behold this week out popped her two bottom teeth!  So I guess it was a double threat of symptoms.  I've also learned that symptoms of teething include bright red cheeks.  I thought she got sunburned, which was strange since we'd had her so covered, but this morning she looked normal.  So I looked it up.  Turns out it's teething... easily solved with some baby Tylenol and some ora-gel!

Such a lovely little sun dress!  She managed to wear this all day without one spill and LOVED it!

Just a size comparison, here is Claire on the same blanket but at two months:

 

 I can see so much growth in my little girl and changes are happening by the day!  Currently she's working on learning signs (thank you, Baby Einstein, for making a DVD of them--it helps me a lot).  In fact, she's watching Baby Einstein in this photo:

And I couldn't believe it, but the video actually had her smiling and chuckling.  Even I can't make her laugh half the time.  Geniuses, indeed.

 I know, I know, you're not supposed to let babies watch TV.  But I have a friend who swears by this DVD for help in signing.  So I feel like it's more of a tool--she certainly pays attention to it better than me!  (And let's face it, that darn Baby Einstein crib thing I have is just a lame TV anyway).  

Oh, the OTHER obsession is rattles.  This thing spins and rattles.  She grabs on and stares and tries to stick it in her mouth.  Kinda funny, kinda gross.

But she's getting a lot of use out of her jumper/bouncer/whatever thing now.  She's still a tad too short, but at least we just have to use a small pillow to help her out.  The one at daycare isn't so taunt, so she can actually reach the ground and usually goes nuts in it.  Well, now she goes nuts in ours, too!

Here is a short video of baby Claire bouncing:

We're currently working on signing, of course, but also sitting up.  Sitting up on our own is quite the struggle, mostly because we are interested in FEET.  And to grab our FEET, we must fall over.  I'm sure she'll figure it out soon enough.  Kind of bittersweet all the things she's able to do now, but I'm looking forward to every new change!  See you next month!