Olivia at 5 months: I survived a solo flight with a baby

Olivia thinks being 5 months old is awesome!

And it is. Of course it is. But… it makes me sad. In a good way. I have a 5 month old.

This month has been eventful to say the least. Olivia and I traveled to Texas alone. The airport and flying weren’t all that bad. Stressful, yes. Did I cry? Only once when the horrible jerk worker in Dallas refused to help me carry my car seat and stroller down the gate. Would I do it again, alone? Hell no. But it was a good trip. It was so nice to see Celina again and meet her twins. And for her to meet Olivia.

Goats are SO boring.

So. Boring.

We celebrated her first Easter. Which really should have been its own post because I love All Of The Holidays now that she’s here to enjoy them with. But alas, seeing how I can barely crank out a monthly update, well, I guess…

Anyway, here are some pictures from that day:

Finding her basket from the Easter Bunny!

Monkey with her monkey. Grandma got her an Easter basket too!

This has been a rough month for sleep. Rough. She was sleeping so well, even when she was waking once a night to nurse. But little by little, the exhaustion that I remember as a newborn starting setting in again and it wasn’t until I started referring to Olivia as an asshole that realized how exhausted I had become again, and the sleep regression she started in my 4 month post was peaking and getting worse. Oy. And seeing how I’m a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants parent, we didn’t have any plan in place to combat this.

Universe: You should have tried sleep training, you ignorant slut.

Risa: Indeed.

(Feel free to point and snicker at the first time mom.)

So I guess we are riding this out and hoping she eventually learns to put herself back to sleep.

Especially when you’re trying to get me to sleep.

Nicknames: Monkey, Olive, Livvy, Chunks, Chunkers (I’m sorry, Olivia)

Weight: 16 lbs according to the home scale.
Length: 26 in long
Head Circumference: 43 cm
Diaper Size: 2
Clothing size: 3-6 months and starting some 6 months.

Eating: Still nursing every 3 hours give or take during the day. At night, she will eat.. three? four? seven times? It depends. If she’s in bed with me, there are nights I feel like I didn’t sleep. at. all. But overall, I say she’s averaging about 3 times a night now. Still no solids, but I’ll give her a teeny bit of avocado or let her mouth a carrot stick. She still has the tongue reflex, so I’m definitely waiting another month for food. Though I’d be happy if I could just nurse her until she’s a year. It’s SO much easier. Her reflux and gas have been pretty good. She was spitting up a lot while we were in Texas and the drool.. oh the drool. It’s strange because she drooled so much there, but since we’ve been back, it’s gone back to normal drool.

Sleeping: Can I just say “see above” and leave it at that? In the start of month four, she was starting to wake earlier at night, 1-2:00am verses her old 3-4:00am. But now she’s up between 11 and 12 many times, and again 2-3 hours later. After that, I don’t know what she actually does because that’s when I pull her into bed with me from sheer exhaustion. Sometimes she’s in bed with me by 10:00.
Naps were bad for awhile and now are slowly getting a little better. She usually will give me one good 2-3 hour nap but then it’s cat naps after that. Let’s just say her sleep is all over the place. Every day and night is different. This sleep regression sucks. It will pass right? It will get better? Because this has been going on for a month now.

Milestones: Grabbed her feet 3/28. She rolled from back to tummy 4/17.

Health: No concerns (unless you count the fact that she sucks at sleeping).

Likes: Yelling to hear herself. Scooting around on her back. Watching us eat. Frantically sucking and gnawing on things. Anything. Her teething monkey. Blankets. Knuckles of Mommy and Daddy and random strangers. Walls. She’s still loving her walks. She discovered her feet earlier in the month and is all about them now.

She finally got them up to her mouth and frantically sucked on them.

What?

She’s also been practicing hard rolling over. The day before she turned 5 months, she actually did it. Of course Chris and I weren’t paying attention and by the time we saw her she was flopped on her stomach with her arms pinned beneath her. She has yet to attempt that again. But she’s been playing in the jumper lately and totally gets a kick out of being free to move around as she pleases.

Dislikes: Rug burns from scooting around on her back. Being taken out of the bathtub. Her bedtime routine. Getting into her pajamas, reading a book, hates all of it. Apparently she also dislikes sleeping. Still bottles. I’ve been terrible at practicing with bottles this month. Oh yes, and still tummy time.

Undecided about: Her high chair. We give her toys during dinner to play with but she usually ends up back on Daddy’s lap.

She likes sitting up by herself, but… I think once she starts solids she’ll have more fun in it. Also, laying on the grass. While out on a walk one evening, we took a break to sit on the grass and I took her out of her stroller and lay her on the grass, so she could be tickled by it. She lay there, unmoving with this look on her face like, Um, the grass is totally poking me and I seriously don’t like it.

Also: This hat, apparently.

Looking forward to: Putting her into her summer dresses and rompers.

Sitting up by herself. I heard it is so much easier to keep them entertained when they can do that. I think she’s so over viewing the world from her back.

17 weeks

18 weeks

19 weeks (celebrated in Texas!)

20 weeks