Noah is Five Months Old!

It's time to update what Noah has been up to lately! First up, his stats. He weighed in this month at 16 lbs, 6 oz (50th to 75th percentile), which means he gained just 14 ounces. It is hard to believe his gain was slow again, since he was still nursing around the clock this past month! He grew just 3/4-inch to measure up at 26.5 inches (75th to 90th percentile). This puts him right at the 50th percentile for height-to-weight ratio, so I guess that makes him a normal, healthy baby boy? ;)

Below is the pic of Noah at five months, wearing the 12-month onesie. I know it's hard to tell in this pic, but he is actually starting to get some hair! Woohoo! It is super light and fine, so he still looks like a baldie until you get really close-up and see the fuzz. ;) Love it! He hasn't lost any of his cute, chubby rolls yet and his blue eyes are still hanging in there too.

Unlike his big brother's early eating adventures, we haven't progressed much with the solid foods yet for Noah. We let him get his first taste of rice cereal at four months old, but since then he hasn't been eating it on a regular basis yet. Perhaps that is the reason for the slower weight gain? It's mostly my fault because I haven't been doing a great job at making sure he gets it every day. In my defense, I have found it to be much harder to do by myself with another kid demanding my attention too, and Daddy is normally the cereal guy! Also making it difficult is the fact that he is not a big fan of it when mixed with formula (which Ethan had no problem with). Sigh. Hopefully he will warm up to it at some point to make it a bit easier on me!

New accomplishments this month:

• Puts his pacifier in his mouth by himself
• Rolls all over the place
• Almost able to sit up by himself, but his head is still a bit too heavy ;)
• Recognizes and responds to his name
• Big, hearty laughs

He continued to struggle in the sleep department this past month, going for 2- to 3-hour stretches all night most nights. So, we decided it may be time to implement some sleep training...for both of us! The one problem with using a baby monitor is that I hear everything. Anytime he would begin to stir, I would wake up and go to his room to feed him like clockwork. He never had to cry when he was hungry because he never had the chance to get that worked up! So...we decided it was time to turn the volume off on the monitor. Yep. That was a hard one for a control freak like me! But it has turned out to be most helpful! Now, when he does wake at night, he actually has to cry, loud enough for me to hear him down the hall before I will go into his room. Sometimes I let him go for a few minutes (watching him on the video), then he stops and goes back to sleep. Awesome! We are teaching him to put himself back to sleep. I know some think it's cruel, but I think it's necessary for all of us. He doesn't have the physical need to eat that often during the night now. He has doubled his birth weight, which is supposed to indicate that he should be physically able to sleep through the night. So, that is what we're trying to accomplish. So far it seems to be going quite well! He gave me his longest stretch yet just this week - 9 hrs 45 min! Awesome!! I had put him down at 8:15 pm and he made it all the way until 6 am without me hearing a peep! He has been giving me some 6 hour stretches again too most nights since we started as well. Ahhh, loving it! He still takes a morning nap of around 30 minutes to an hour, a longer afternoon nap of around 1 to 3 hours and occasionally takes an evening nap of around 30 minutes.

I love that he seems to be a happier baby now too. In the past, I couldn't set him down for more than a minute without the threat of him throwing a tantrum until he was picked back up. Now, he is able to entertain himself (which usually involves eating his toes, haha) and he really enjoys when Ethan is nearby and he can watch/"play" with him! Ethan has been such a great help at keeping Noah entertained at the dinner table by pulling his high chair close to him and giving him toys to play with or just his attention. Noah loves it and I love Ethan for being so great with him! He is a super big brother and has really grown up these past few months!

Here is a pic of Ethan at 5 months with Noah's pic. Ethan looks like such a booger in this pic! Noah is not quite the ham that his big brother was/is, but still a cutie! ;) I love these little guys!