Acelyn is already 5 months old, and this month specifically, she's really becoming more of a baby than an infant! She has discovered so much in her world and is a curious little lady, becoming aware of everything around her and wanting in on all the action!
Acelyn loves to play! I think this is why I am in disbelief of how big she is getting so quickly- I can't believe she is already old enough to start actually playing with toys, and enjoying it! She has a ton of favorite toys in her life, like her squishy blocks (the crinkle ones are her favorite), her pink rattle, Scout (handed down from big bro, but we changed all the settings to know all of "Acelyn's favorites"!), the light up turtle and squishy zebra, and anything that big brother is playing with (like his trucks, specifically his big green garbage truck). She can manipulate toys and items extremely well in her hands and has pretty much mastered holding on to things and grabbing what she wants. She loves playing peek-a-boo and can guarantee a smile if you do it with her. She absolutely loves her exersaucer and her jumper; girl goes nuts when she's in both of them! But, overwhelmingly, her favorite thing of all is Nolan. He can make her laugh like no one else and by barely doing anything, and she can be calmed down by him singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to her. She loves watching him and can always be found looking for him if he's not around. The second she sees him, she lights up! Nolan has gotten a little better with gentle touches around his sis, but we are still constantly on the watch with him. He is enjoying the spotlight of being number one in her eyes, which I know will last for a loooonnng time!
She has grown so much both physically but even more so in her learning ability this month. Acelyn has learned to roll, both from belly to back and back to belly, as well as sit up independently all in the same week! She can easily roll from her belly to her back and sit by herself with no problems, and sitting is how she spends a majority of her time playing, now. She loves to sit so much that she's even started to pull herself up when she's finished nursing, by crunching her body together and holding on to me wherever she can get a grip. Rolling from back to belly is a bit of a challenge for her, and she always gets about 80% of the way over and gets stuck! She can't quite understand how to get her heavy head up and that last bit of body over as she's almost through the roll. She has done it by herself on a few occasions, so I know she can do it, she just chooses to lay on her side most of the time and grab what she needs!
Acelyn also started eating cereal and oatmeal this month, which is a newer thing in the last couple weeks. She absolutely loves it and I have to limit how much she takes in otherwise she would just keep going and going. This is the stark opposite of her brother, who, liked cereal and oatmeal just fine, but only ate it if he had to and was fine being done. Acelyn, on the other hand, yells at me if I'm not quick enough and screeches when we're done. The one time I gave in and fed her more and more, she was waaaay too cranky and full for the next 24 hours, so I've learned to limit her intake at her one feeding a day.
Little miss has quite the personality and we think she's going to be a goofy little girl when she gets older. She is very content and goes with the flow, and although she can be super serious around new faces, she warms up quickly and can crack a smile here and there with the right things done/said. She has just started to play shy and will snuggle into your neck when doing so. She loves to talk and jabber at home with us and loves to laugh the cutest belly laugh, still scrunching her nose when she's really cracking up, which makes her look a lot like Mommy! She recently learned how to blow raspberries and bubbles and does this quite often every day. I still call her my little daredevil, and think that she's going to be the ballsy one vs. Nolan the timid one- she loves bouncing around, flying in the air, and being reckless and splashing like a madman in the tub (seriously, she makes more of a mess than Nolan!)
Here's what else she's been up to this month:
Height, Weight and Sizes:
We don't have an official weigh-in this month since we won't be having another well visit until her six month checkup, but unofficially, Acelyn is still tall, measuring at 27 inches long. To my surprise, I randomly weighed her and myself (and took our difference) at my Mom's the other night after my dinner and hers, and she came in right around 15 pounds! She definitely has packed on the pounds in the last month and we can feel it when we hold her and see her rolls starting to fill out even more, especially in her thighs and cheeks (my favorite)! She is currently wearing most 6 month clothing, such as onesies, shirts, and bottoms and rompers. She just recently made the switch to 9 month pajamas since she (again) outgrew her 6 month ones in length! She also is starting in 9 month leggings and pants, since the weather has cooled down, because 6 month ones are just a little too tight for her. We are on our last box of size 2 diapers and then making the switch to size 3s!
Feeding:
We've continued to exclusively breastfeed this month and I am constantly so thankful we have lasted this long! It's an extra blessing when you have experienced the stark opposite before- as in exclusively pumping for Nolan- and not having to pump every 3 hours is SO nice. Since last month, we've successfully incorporated a bottle into Acelyn's schedule, so she's familiar with one and takes it nightly. I pump before we all go to bed around 11PM, and she eats from the bottle that I pump, that way I'm both keeping my supply up and she's getting bottle exposure and succeeding with it. Like stated above, we recently introduced cereal and oatmeal into her schedule, and she loves it! We started with organic rice cereal, and her first couple bites were skeptical. Once she realized what it was, you couldn't stop! A week later we introduced organic oatmeal, and she continued to enjoy that and will.not.stop. until I enforce that meal time is over! I'm so excited to see how she will do with real food purees, but we won't be starting those until closer to 6 months.
Acelyn is definitely teething and can always be found with either her hand, a toy, or something in her mouth, gnawing away at it. This month, she started sucking on her bottom lip, which might be one of the cutest things I've ever seen, but probably not the best habit to have! I'm just waiting for a little tooth to pop through any day now, even though there isn't one in sight, physically. It's coming, I know it!
Sleeping:
Acelyn is still a much less scheduled sleeper than her older bro ever was! She has continued on the same schedule as last month, yet, has stopped taking her catnaps in the evening, which leads to some craziness of being awake for waaay to long when she wakes up from her last nap at 4PM and doesn't go down to bed until 8PM. On top of that, she's switched her afternoon nap to be later, which really goes against Nolan's nap, so neither of them sleep at the same time which has been making me craaaazy! Because this has been a little hectic and nuts, I just recently (like, starting yesterday, recently!) have adjusted for a new schedule, hoping to allow for a little more down time for both kids to nap at the same time as well as getting in a later, third nap for Acelyn that will allow her to enjoy her evenings much more! We love following the E.A.S.Y. schedule, so as of yesterday and today, I'm working on having her wake and eat at 7AM, with her first nap following at 9AM. She's used to this, but what she's not used to is sleeping for longer than 40 minutes! I'll be trying to get her to nap for 1.5 hours at her first two naps, hopefully stretching her day a bit better. She should wake around 10:30AM to eat, and then another nap will follow around 1PM and eating again at 2:30PM, which is nice because hopefully this will give me about an hour of time for both kiddos to be sleeping. Finally, her last catnap should happen around 4:30PM for about an hour, then dinner, bath time, bedtime routine, and a final nursing session and bed by 8PM. We will continue to dreamfeed at 11PM when we go to bed, and she still wakes in the middle of the night around 3-4AM on her own, so hopefully once we get more scheduled, we can then work on dropping that MOTN feeding so Mama can get some rest! :) We will see where this month leads us!
Likes:
-Nolan and watching every single thing he does, laughing because of big brother
-squishy blocks and crinkle noises
-cereal and oatmeal
-bathtime is the time of her life
-teething toys
-looking up at Mama after nursing and smiling, pulling herself up on her own after
-rolling from belly to back
-Daniel Tiger, she squeals when she sees him on TV
-watching Harley, trying to grab him
-forward facing in the Ergo
-wind blowing
-selfies on the iPhone
Dislikes:
-taking a toy away that she's really into (cough cough big brother cough) or not being able to reach something she wants
-falling asleep on her own
-being overtired
-not feeding her cereal/oatmeal quick enough, taking it away when we're all done (she could eat forever)
-sitting when she wants to be laying/laying when she wants to be sitting - if you put her in a position she doesn't want to be in, she will let you know!
-sneezes/being startled- if she's caught off guard
