Sunday 29 March 2015

5 months

Baby AJ is 5 months today!

What's new this month:

  • Grabbing her toes. The first day she did it, I was at my parents' place and it was so freaking adorable; I don't know how many dozens of photos we took.
  • Related: pulling her socks off. I didn't see her the first time she did it, because I'd left her a few minutes on her playmat by herself while I fixed something to eat in the kitchen. I put two and two together when I found a sock near her mouth and suspiciously wet. I don't put socks on her now unless supervised! Luckily the weather is warming up so she doesn't need them much.
  • Starting to sit with support. The first time she did it I had her propped up on the baby buddy pillow, and she started lifting her head and shoulders into a sitting position. I bought her a mamas and papas chair, and she can sit in it for a few minutes at least. She also likes to sit in our laps with us supporting her bottom.
  • Chewing on fabrics.  I don't really like dresses on babies, so I almost never put AJ in one. (I find them awkward, always bunching up, and they cover too much of her sweet body). I tried one the other day because people have made them as gifts and I felt guilty about never dressing her in them. AJ promptly pulled up the skirt and stuffed it in her mouth.  Which just gave me another reason not to put my baby in a dress!
  • Any bows or embellishments on her clothes, she will also stuff in her mouth. Any cute knitted or crocheted garment, she must sample the yarn.
  • Grasping with both hands, and using feet to move objects. Loves her rainforest play mat.
  • Laughing often. Still breathy, but more and more like a laugh. Smiles at anyone who wants a smile.
  • Mr. Turtle reports that she laughed at Monty Python the other evening, which is partly how he entertained her when I was having a girls' night out. He thinks it was the silly faces and voices.
  • Follows people with her eyes as they move about a room or leave the room
  • Still doesn't like tummy time, but is less passive. She does lift her head and push up on her arms for brief periods of time, but gets quickly frustrated. She will snarl and grunt with anger, which is pretty funny. My intuition is that her somewhat bigger than average head and torso make this maneuver more challenging for her than other babies of a similar age.
  • Rolling onto her side with great energy, still hasn't quite made it all the way over.
Other parenting minutiae:
  • AJ still sleeps though the night, usually. And even naps during the day (in her crib) have been fairly consistent lately. She can put herself to sleep maybe 50% of the time. Bouncing, cuddling or feeding usually works the rest of the time, though she is quite capable of fighting naps all day if she puts her mind to it. Still sleeping nights in the Halo Bassinest, though its days are certainly limited. I want to keep her there till 6 months; we'll see if she will still fit through the next month.
  • We finally added to our collection of BumGenius all-in-ones so are cloth diapering consistently; it's going well and the diapers are adorable.
  • Going for regular walks. I always use the mei tai when I'm on my own now: it's much easier than the stroller.  I use the stroller when with grandparents, because they love to push her, and with Mr Turtle, though I want him to try the carrier one of these days.
  • Exclusively breastfeeding. AJ has been consistent about taking a bottle of expressed breast milk the past two months (yay!) which has allowed for some variety of adult life.
  • I am thinking about solids. I'm mostly sure that I want to give baby-led feeding a try. It makes sense to me because AJ likes to put things in her own mouth, but doesn't care for us putting things in her mouth. It took weeks and weeks to even convince her to take a bottle. Anyone out there who has tried baby led feeding, I would love to hear of your experience! Of course if we could just find some edible clothing for her, she would be feeding herself in no time.
Me, post-partum:
  • My body feels pretty much back to normal. I am still between 5 and 10 pounds over pre-pregnancy weight (I'm not even sure what I was before getting pregnant). As far as looks and how I feel overall, I have no body issues at all, but I still don't fit a substantial part of my wardrobe. I'm not sure if it is the extra weight/increased cup size or if I've altered permanently post-birth. I figure I'll wait until a month after starting work again, or until back to pre-pregnancy weight, and if things don't fit, I'll be researching consignment stores.
  • I've added quite a few activities back into my life. I go to a step dance class weekly, and lately started going to band again while the  grandparents take care of AJ. Percussionists are always welcome! Although it's going to be more work than I anticipated (I really should be practicing right now) so not sure how good an idea that was. Whatever, it's a reason to be out of the house and the grandparents have been loving the arrangement.
  • Still no period, though I get cramps occasionally. I did have a lot of EWCM last week, which made me wonder if I could be fertile again.
  • Mr. Turtle and I are trying to make time to be a couple and engage in some adult activities. 
  • Maternity/parental leave is half over! Yikes. We decided that I will return to work in September, and Mr. Turtle will take the final 5 weeks or so of parental leave. We'll use that time to transition AJ to daycare (hopefully she has a spot in September, but we won't know for sure till August.) Part of me is confident that this is the best possible plan, and happy that Mr. Turtle will have the opportunity to be a stay at home dad, and the other part is saying, noooooo, I don't want this time to end! But at the same time I don't feel ready to give up work, or my current job, which has the big advantage of being very close to home and across the street from the daycare we hope to use. I haven't seriously considered not going back to work, for a variety of reasons. I feel like I at least need to try it, keeping in mind I'm not married to my job if any of the three of use hate the arrangement or can't deal with it. But still, what a ache it gives me! I'm sure it will just get worse as the time approaches, but I'm trying to enjoy every minute of the present. 
  • I have a physical next month, at which time I will bring up the F-word: fertility. Although I don't expect my doctor, or any doctor, to have anything particularly useful to say about it. I'll post more about that as time goes on. For now, we are not trying but not preventing. I took a pregnancy test the other day, and was 9 parts relieved, 1 part disappointed that it was negative. The disappointment came not so much from wanting to be or believing that I was pregnant, but from wondering if I would ever see another positive test. But for now at least I am easily consoled by AJ's presence in our lives. While I don't want to actively prevent a pregnancy, I would prefer her to be the centre of our lives for a least a year, and not start worrying about vaginal secretions, symptoms, ultrasound results and all the other drama.
In pictures:



Wishing everyone happiness and a good week, as always.


18 comments:

  1. She is so gorgeous! And laughing at Monty Python, well, that just shows she has a great sense of humour and good taste in comedy!!

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    1. thanks! I think she has a good sense of humour - or a weird one anyway, if her parents have any influence.

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  2. Such a cutie! I've thought a lot about cloth diapering, but I just don't see me doing that much laundry...are you using a service? Is it as time consuming as I imagine it to be?

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    1. No baby yet? :-p We are washing at home. I honestly don't find it to be that much laundry or time, but then I was already doing more laundry because of baby clothes. When the diaper bag gets full I just dump it into the washing machine and the machine does all the work - no big deal. We are using BumGenius All in Ones (there's a link on the baby stuff page), which we chose because they looked like the least work. They are more expensive than other options but still an overall saving. I have 18 diapers and I'll throw in a load of laundry when I'm down to about 6. I think they actually recommend 24 but we're doing fine. I use disposables at night and if we are going out. Honestly, for one child at least, I don't find diapers that big of a deal at all. Of course things don't start to get really interesting till they start solids; maybe I will eat my words then.

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  3. What a big girl so cute!! We love cloth diapering all in ones are so nice! I am excited to see how the baby led weaning goes we are going to start our boy on this in another month or so and see how he does for now he is getting some homemade purees but we leave it pretty chunky and he has started to learn to chew its adorable!

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    1. Good to hear that solids are going well. That's great baby is learning to chew! one argument I read for baby led weaning is that they learn to chew before swallowing, so it makes more sense in terms of learning to eat. Good point about the chunky purees; no need to be 100% one way or the other.

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  4. Oh, my. She is ADORABLE. I love the fact that she is enjoying Monty Python.

    And I love that you are taking care of yourself, reminding yourself that you are a beautiful, multidimensional woman AND mother. :)

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    1. Thanks. :-) Such kind and encouraging words, it means a lot. I don't feel like I've stopped being myself, just that there is more to me now. :-)

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  5. She sounds like so much fun! The image of her eating a dress amuses me to no end. Also on that list, her laughing at Monty Python. Good little geeky baby ;)

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    1. Oh, she is so fun. It's hard to believe that she wasn't always this interactive. All the clothes eating is making me think time for solids! but she still needs to practice sitting a little more. If she isn't a geeky baby it won't be for lack of effort on our part lol.

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  6. Great pictures of your gorgeous girl!
    We've been doing baby led weaning with Pickle since she was 6 months. We started with batons of cucumber and cooked veg and now at ten months she pretty much eats whatever we have. Tonight for example I made a coconut fish curry with jasmine rice. I do make extra stuff for her as snacks eg polenta or couscous sticks or veggie pikelets. The hardest part is letting go of controlling how much she eats. Sometimes most of it ends up on the floor (it IS very messy. I put an old cot sheet under the high chair and a teatowel pegged around her neck as a bib to cover her whole body and allow food to roll off her onto the floor. Then the food goes directly on the tray in front of her and at the end I unpeg the teatowel from the back of her neck and stretch it over and peg it to the tray to stop her from smearing food around as we wipe her hands and face). Other times she simply demolishes everything she is offered. Her current favourites are sardine fritters and corn-on-the-cob. I encourage you to give it a go. The website you've linked is a great source of information and http://onehandedcooks.com.au/ has some great ideas and recipes. Feel free to send me any specific questions you may have.

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    1. Thanks for the info and encouragement! it's great to hear from someone who has tried baby led weaning. I will definitely be in touch if I have questions. I'm excited to see what recipes that website has!

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  7. Love this girl, she's so cute. I'm also pretty set on cloth diapering (as I've blogged about) and because the daycare we've chosen doesn't allow for cloth diapers I'm going with the hybrids that have disposable inserts that we can (hopefully) use at daycare. I'm glad to know that you don't find it that time consuming. Other mamas say the same thing, so it gives me hope that I can manage. I appreciate the post-partum body section. My boobs are ever growing and I'm wondering if they'll ever get back to their normal (which was still pretty big) size. Ugh.

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    1. Oh yeah, daycare and diapers, I didn't even think of that :-p I hope she can use the ones we have with disposable inserts if possible. Heh, I hear you about the huge boobs. I don't want to complain as I've had almost no breastfeeding issues and I know lots of people struggle with it, but I'm not particularly fond of my huge, huge boobs. My one piece of advice is get fitted for a good bra after baby is born. Go to a specialty underwear store and have them measure you. I wear G cup and I could not find that big a size in the department/chain maternity stores, but having a bra that fits and supports properly makes such a difference in how I feel.

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  8. Way late on commenting, but I really enjoyed reading all your updates. Happy 5 months to AJ! She is adorable and it sounds like you guys are both doing great. How did you not include any toe grabbing pics? I keep meaning to join a community symphony myself. I haven't played in one for 7ish years and I definitely need to practice a bit before honking again in public.

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    1. Ha, you're right: I somehow missed out on the toe grabbing! Oh dear. I might have to redo the collage and include one :-D Thanks for the comment. I enjoy being part of a band and definitely encourage you to start playing music again!

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  9. I love this update and it is so cheerful! You sound like you and AJ are doing SO well. Good for you for getting back into your own activities, too. I'm finding it hard to think of doing things just for me b/c I want to spend all of my non-working time with B. I'm insanely jealous of your maternity leave!

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    1. Thanks! Yes, I know I am really lucky to have the amount of leave that I do, though even so I will be complaining at some point that it is not enough. It is a special time to be with our babies. Enjoy them and enjoy life!!

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