Lena: 5 Months

I feel like Lena has changed so much in the past month. She's much more smiley and happy. I can almost always get a smile out of her these days. (The above picture was my first shot!) She still doesn't laugh much, but she just recently started doing this shrieky inhale. Haha. Does that make any sense? It's a version of a laugh. We're getting there.

We're still working on getting her in a good routine. Her schedule generally looks like this. She generally wakes up around 6:45 am. Oy. We snuggle in bed for a while, then she nurses around 7:30. I've really been sticking with feeding her every 3 hours, unless she happens to sleep longer. I'm not that rigid with my scheduling. She's been staying up later between naps - more like an hour and a half to 2 hours. But she's been a catnapper lately. I really want to transition her to sleeping in her crib (instead of the swing), but I don't even know where to begin. She usually has her last feeding at 7:30 at night, and is in bed by 8. The past 2 nights, she has slept straight through to 4/4:30 (as opposed to waking up at midnight to eat like she usually does). I hope that becomes a habit!

She's getting a little personality. She loves to "talk." It's mostly screeching and gurgling and growling. Haha. This is a video of us talking to each other.

She also makes this hilarious cooing sound by gurgling and humming at the same time. It sounds just like a pigeon.

She is a major mama's girl. She will contort her body like crazy to find me when she hears my voice. She prefers me over anyone else and wants me to hold her at all times.

She's an expert roller. She goes both ways and can roll across the room.

We got out the Jumperoo this month. She liked it at first, but now she realizes that I put her in there when I need to go to the bathroom or start a load of laundry, so she associates it with abandonment. Lol.

I've been really making an effort to read to her more often. She loves looking at the pictures as long as I give her her own book to hold onto while we read. Otherwise she tries spastically to get my book in her mouth. She especially loves one specific page of "B is for Bear."

She's much more interested in her toys now, and will even get mad if someone (*ahem* Lucy) takes one away from her. She loves anything with a tag on it. She'll roll off her play mat to get to the tag on the edge. Haha. I really need to buy her a taggie blanket.

She adores Lucy and lights up anytime she walks into the room.

She is a major drooler. I do not remember Lucy drooling so much!

Some of her firsts for this month:
- Stuck her toes in the pool for the first time. She screamed like a banshee. Haha. I don't blame her. It's cold! Also - first bikini! :-)

- Went to a soccer game for the first time.

- First wedding (Jake and Samantha's)

- First ponytail/first matching outfit

She's still a little peanut, wearing size 3 month clothes. I haven't started her on any solid food yet. The new recommendations say to wait until 6 months, and I feel like I should continue to fill her up with breastmilk as long as I can. She's very interested in food, though. I'm looking forward to starting it with her. I think she'll love it!

She is a turbo kicker. Her feet are always moving.

She is my snuggle buddy. She would sleep on me all day every day if I let her. She's so sweet. She loves to rest her hand on my face and stare up at me while I'm rocking her. We love her so much and are so excited to watch her continue to grow and learn new things every day!