5 Months Today!

At five months Isolde...

- is a very happy and talkative baby. She continues with her "shrieks of joy" to mum's delight...ehum, not! Okay, it's a little fun. She also inhales with a high-pitched sound, like she's going to choke, if that makes sense. She has also added blowing bubbles and making fart sounds to her repertoire. She's doing lots of things with her tongue, sticking it out, twisting it around, exploring it and doing exercises for talking I guess. She "discovered" her lips and tongue at four months and did a lot of funny facial expressions for a while but then "forgot" (or it wasn't fun anymore) until more recently when she started doing new things such as "blurbing" (not sure what else to call it) and twisting her tongue.

- still doesn't like pacifiers and sucks on all fingers instead, sometimes one at a time, sometimes all of them at the same time. The thumb is starting to become a favourite but her index finger is close behind (Peter used to suck on his index finger so maybe that will be her thing too?).

- used to sleep at least 5 hours at night and often 6-7 hours and once in a while 8 or 9 hours but lately she hasn't been sleeping as well, as you know. A typical night she would fall asleep around 22:00 and then sleep until at least 4 or 5 am. Then I'd bring her to our bed and breastfeed in bed and we'd both fall asleep again until the next feed 1-2 hours later. When she was little (or littler, she's still very little!) it was very easy to make her fall asleep again and again until 9 or 10 am when I was ready to get up but these days she's pretty awake by 7ish. So sometimes we get up, have breakfast and play, and then go back to sleep again between 9 and 10, but it depends what our plans are for the rest of the day. Sometimes the mum doesn't get anymore sleep, as she needs to beautify herself ;) but baby sleeps. In terms of the night routine, since she was 3-3½ months old we have tried to get a routine going with a bath (or just a wash, no need for a bath every night) and pajama on, a story or a few songs, feed and then bed. She's meant to fall asleep by herself and not in our arms but it's probably 50-50, which is okay I think. In terms of the recent "bad" sleeping, it varies from night to night. Sometimes she wakes up every two-three hours all night and sometimes she sleeps 5-6 hours to start with and then shorter periods. Peter has been letting me sleep in the mornings, as I take the night shift (and will continue to do so as long as I breastfeed and I'm not the one who goes to work), which I'm really grateful for (and for that I forgive that he forgot Mother's Day...).

- thinks her hands and various toys are fun but her feet even more so (though seems to be losing some of its novelty). Socks don't stay on for too long. She hasn't sucked on her own toes yet though :)

- can sit really well now. It started around four months and two weeks. She wanted to sit up when she was sitting on my lap and I let her practice both on my lap and on the floor. In the beginning she'd sit for 30-45 seconds and then falling more and more forwards but now she can sit for long periods (five minutes or so) and sometimes when she starts to fall she'll put down a hand and stops the fall.

- turns and rolls over. She used to do it sporadically about once or twice a week since she was 3½ months but now it's constantly, also when I put her on her back just after she's been fed and thinks she should stay on her back. Two nights ago she had rolled over in her bed for the first time - we found her sleeping om her tummy, so cute. When she's on her tummy she does push-ups - that's pretty new since a week or two - and has also started always holding herself up on her hands rather than her elbows.

- is really mobile, wants to go forward but can't obviously. She moves around on her play blanket and gets to her toys eventually even if she can't reach them at first. She gets frustrated sometimes if she can't reach.

- has a few favourite games: her mirror buddy of course, the babygym in general and playing peekaboo with herself. The latter is really cute, which means she puts a blankey on her face, removes it, laughs, and over and over again.

- lied on her tummy in the pram today so she could see a bit better (or at least from a new angle). I bet she will only want to do that now...

- has been trying porridge (oat cereal) for a few weeks now but it's not a hit. We just started her on potatoes and carrots and the like too but so far not a hit either. Will use some of the tips I received below - thanks!

- weighed 6,220 gr and was 61 cm tall last time we checked which was about three weeks ago. Tomorrow is our next appointment, including her second vaccination.

- has started wanting to cuddle more but still hasn't really understood what it is about except for when's hungry or upset, when she wants to be close of course.

- likes water so much that at the baby swim lessons she doesn't want to close her mouth when water is poured her and thus was not allowed to dive (it's more like a quick peek under water at this stage) at last week's lesson. She'd rather taste the water :) But this week she got to try it once and she did great!

- likes being read and sung too. It's fun to see how she recognises and favours some rhymes and jingles. In terms of books I'm not sure she has any favourites yet as we're always reading the same two books to her (the others have been packed), but she likes those two at least!

- takes at least two one- or two-hour naps daily and a couple of power naps sometimes but when we went to Peter's family's summer house over the Ascension and National Day weekend she slept much longer (and also a bit better at night). But since there were four - and when Peter's sister and her husband arrived, six - people entertaining her; I can understand it was pretty exhausting :)


These are things all babies do of course but it's very special when it's your own baby doing it - and most important, you are experiencing it all with her - and you feel like she such a cute, clever and amazing child! :)