Timothy's Fifth Month

Whew, so glad that leap is over! It took a little longer than I was hoping, the fussiness seemed to continue for a couple more weeks longer than I anticipated, and I'm not sure if it was due to the leap, or just the timing of the 4-month sleep regression (or both together) but he did have some trouble getting to sleep for several nights, and two nights where he woke me up three times, which felt like torture after all the nights he only woke once! Waking only once did become his standard this month, so I can't complain too much about the 4-month old sleep regression. And after about a week of rocky naps, he settled back to being a good napper too. 

He's been much more giggly, we're finally getting good laughs out of him more easily! He laughed at Daddy singing him a song, and often thinks it's funny when either of us "eats" him with scarfing sound effects. His favorite sounds to make are very emphatic, loud squeals and grunts. And he's more easily bored with toys, and more easily frustrated when he can't do exactly what he wants (crawling is hard, y'all!) when he tries.

He's also gotten a little more clingy this month, there have been several times when grandparents/aunts/uncles wanted to hold him, but if I gave him to them too soon, he'd start wailing. I need to make sure he gets a few good minutes to warm up to them before getting handed off. 

Here's how he uses his play gym to help him roll from back to tummy!

He's finally gotten back into rolling from his tummy to his back some more after taking a break for a couple months, and he's also working on rolling from back to tummy. He's great at getting onto his side, and has even rolled all the way to his tummy by pushing off with his feet on the leg of his play gym, but that doesn't completely count. He can sometimes get his knees up under him for his scooting, but he hasn't been pushing up on his arms to a crawling position yet. 

We've started letting him sit in his booster/high chair at the table with us while we're eating, and he watches us eat and enthusiastically eats the toys we give him.... and equally enthusiastically flings them on the floor. Which seems quite intentional sometimes, although supposedly babies don't intentionally throw/drop things until much older. At the end of this month he can start eating solids, so that will be interesting!

This is how he naps in the car... the hat helps block the light, and interesting, distracting things going by outside!

For Memorial Day weekend, we did 2 day trips! Timothy's first time to the mountains and the beach! We separated them by one day at home so we'd have some time to recover. Overall they went really well, and the supercharging stops were mostly timed nicely to coincide with when Timothy was supposed to be nursing anyway, so it worked out really well... except for the one time he wasn't interested in feeding, even though he was supposed to be hungry!

First day trip was up to the mountains, to spend the day with Matt's parents who were up there for the week. We had a fun day eating at our favorite mountain restaurant, hiking and just relaxing on the veranda and enjoying the view. Timothy did great napping in the car during the day, and we left after his bedtime feed and he slept the whole way home.

The second day trip to the beach was to spend the day with my family, and some friends, who had rented a cottage on the beach for the weekend. We had a relaxing day eating lunch at the cottage, playing Sushi Go, and spending a short time out on the beach so Timothy could experience sand and the ocean! He did great sitting in his seat while Matt and I ate at our favorite Wilmington restaurant, Indochine. And then he slept all the way home again.

We're enjoying doing day trips with him, it's easier for him to sleep the first few hours after bedtime in the car on the way home, and then we all get to sleep in our own beds at home, which is much better sleep for Matt and me, and seems to be better sleep for Timothy too. 

Timothy is just getting to be more and more fun as he becomes more giggly, more independent and opinionated, and shows us more of his own little personality! He's a sweet, cheerful baby, and I can't believe he's only been part of our lives for 5 months... but at the same time, I feel like he's growing up too fast. 

 

Timothy's Fourth Month

Timothy has been settling into a pretty consistent nap routine this month, 2 hours in the morning, 1.5-2 hours in the early afternoon, and a later afternoon 30-45 min nap. It's made it a little harder for me to want to get out and do things, because we so often disrupt his nap times being out, and he sleeps so well in his crib! Church is usually right during nap time, but he is still doing pretty well sleeping in the carrier. I'm not sure how long that will last!

He likes his crib so much that we've completely switched him to sleeping in the crib all night. The transition to our room was starting to disturb him and he'd waking up instead of sleeping through the move. So we started leaving him in the crib until he woke up for his first feeding around midnight-1am. But then we found that he seemed to sleep less soundly in the cosleeper, so I started putting him back in his crib after his second night feeding around 4-5am. Finally after a few nights of him only sleeping in our room for those few wee hours, I decided I should just let him sleep in the nursery all night, and now instead of nursing him in our bed, I get up and go to the nursery to feed him. 

It was a nice, gradual transition, and he's been sleeping quite well in the nursery. Matt sleeps better because after the few initial squawks from the monitor, I turn it off and he gets peace and quiet instead of listening to Timothy's noisy eating, Timothy sleeps better because his crib is more comfy and my tossing around doesn't disturb him, and I sleep better because I'm not worried about waking him up in my attempts to get comfortable and go back to sleep after feeding. He's even given us several nights this month where he only woke once! 

We still think he's teething, there is just SO much drool! And he wants to chew on everything! But no visible sign of teeth yet that I can tell. He likes chewing on knuckles (Daddy's is his favorite) and his carriers when we're wearing him, but he'll chew on anything he can get in his mouth.

He's also more fussy lately, but we figure that's just because he's been in Leap 4 this month. This is the "world of events" and is supposedly the worst leap yet. So far it really hasn't been so bad, and only a few more days until he's supposed to be finished leaping! I can't wait to see what new skills will be emerging as he finishes the leap!

He likes grabbing faces, pulling hair, playing with toys that make noise and facing out in the carrier with Daddy! He can scoot around a bit during tummy time, and is very wiggly. He'll sometimes try to squirm off of a lap when he's being held. He finally discovered his toes! He's also getting even more vocal, and makes louder squeals than ever before! He usually wakes up in the morning talking, which is so cute, but sometimes he's woken up very excited, and we've been startled awake by his happy shrieks!

His rattle has been one of his favorite toys this month, he will examine it closely, wave it around, shake it, and of course, try to put it in his mouth! He's been trying to roll from his back onto his front, and can do it with only a little help from me! He also loves his Lambie and a vintage stuffed dog/teether that my folks brought from their collection of our old baby toys!

This month Timothy got to meet his great-aunt Deborah, and great-uncle Mark, on Daddy's side of the family, which was very exciting for all of us, I had never met them before either! We had a very fun weekend with lots of laughter and stories of memories. 

He also got to meet his great-aunt Melody, great-aunt Kathy and cousin Barbara (twice removed) on my mom's side when they came down for a Seagrove trip with my mom. Aunt Mel gave him this beautiful cross stitch that she had actually started working on for me, when I was a baby! 

And to finish out the month (actually a couple days after he officially turned 4 months, but I'm including it now anyway) we took him on his first overnight trip! We spent two nights in Williamsburg, and he did so well! We switched him to a convertible car seat because he had began to seem uncomfortable in his infant seat, and I'm so glad we did. We timed our departure to coincide with his usual 2-hour morning nap, and after an initial scare when he woke up after only 30 minutes, he went back to sleep and did end up sleeping for 2 hours of the trip. The rest of the drive he happily played with his toys.

Our other concern was how well he would sleep in his co-sleeper, since he's been in his comfy crib for most of this month. Our trials didn't go well, so we ended up purchasing a new, softer mattress to go in the co-sleeper, and with that adjustment he seemed to sleep just as well as at home! He had fun hanging out in the condo that we shared with his Uncle Dave, Aunt Lizzie and cousin Edison.

He also pretty much behaved while we walked around Williamsburg, sleeping in the carrier with Daddy most of the time. But we went in the Capitol building, and while the tour guide/reenactor was talking, he woke up and decided he wanted to talk too! Matt tried to entertain him by letting him chew on his knuckle, but he just continued talking around it! It was very amusing, and a little embarrassing. Overall it was a wonderful trip, and I'm putting it down as an amazingly successful experiment of traveling with Timothy!