Levi is Five Months Old + his Woodland Nursery

Age of Baby: 5 months

Size of Baby:

• Weight: 17 lbs 3 oz (up to the 63rd percentile), + 1 lb 8 oz from last month
• Length: 26 inches (down to the 53rd percentile), + 0.5 inches from last month
• Head circumference: not measured

Levi is wearing a size 2 diaper, though it's starting to get a bit snug. He is wearing 3-6 month clothes, though some of the 6-9 month clothes fit a bit better! ;)

Immunizations:

• None this month

Doctor's Visit Summary:

No visit this month.

Picture of Baby:

Here is Levi's 5-month picture in the 12-month onesie. His eyes are still blue (though it's hard to see in this pic) and he has some spiky little hair growing in on top of his head - about 1 cm long right now! :) His hair is pretty light, but darker than all of his brothers' hair, I think. He is an adorable little fuzzy-headed chunkster.

And here is a comparison of all four of the boys at five months, just for fun. Levi continues to take the prize for heaviest of the four, and continues as 3rd for height. Ethan was 27 inches long and weighed 16 lbs. Noah was 26.5 inches long and weighed 16 lbs 6 oz. And tiny little Amos was just 25.5 inches long and weighed 14 lbs 3 oz. Maybe it's a good thing Levi is four years younger, or he could end up passing Amos in size in a few years! Ha! Levi definitely has his own look, but I still think he favors Noah more than Ethan or Amos (who both crack me up here with their faces).

Accomplishments this Month:

• Sitting up in stroller for walks
• Went to his first live performance

Levi seems to be extroverted like his Daddy. He loves to see everything going on around him and people watch when we're out. So we decided it was time to let him sit up in a stroller for our family walks, instead of lying back in his carseat, snapped into the jogging stroller. He loved it! I think it makes him look way too big, but such is life. :'( He really enjoys being outside for long walks with Daddy, Lego and his brothers. Mommy tries to go most of the time, but sometimes enjoys a silent house while she gets lots of things accomplished at home!! ;)

At the end of February, Ethan's 3rd grade class gave a musical performance at the monthly PTA meeting. Levi really enjoyed listening to them sing and watching them dance (much more than Ethan enjoyed it - sigh). He was the perfect audience. :) Singing to him is usually the best way to get him calmed down when he is upset. It doesn't matter if you even say words. Humming works, too. Same thing goes for playing music on our phones. He loves to listen and watch the videos.

Once again, I wish I could report that Levi was sleeping through the night, but he's still not consistently. He'll sleep anywhere from 1 (on a super rough night) to 11 hours straight though! He was doing pretty well near the beginning of the month, but has since regressed again in the last couple of weeks. Also in the past couple of weeks, I've been trying to get him on more of a schedule during the day, including naps in his crib! I often run errands in the mornings, so he'll normally get a bit of a nap in his carseat while I'm out, but he's started taking afternoon naps of about 1-2 hours in his crib now. It's a start. I've continued to nurse him every 2-3 hours during the daytime for 15-25 minutes. He eats about 8 times in a 24-hr period. My plan is to start solid foods at some point soon. I'm hoping that may help fill his tummy a bit more so he'll sleep a little better! Given the fact that he's doubled his birth weight and he's also done it plenty of times, he should be able to sleep through the night. Sometimes he seems hungry (I guess it's hard to keep those chunky thighs if you don't eat all night) when he wakes up and other times he just needs comforted. It would be great if he would learn to put his paci in himself at night so I didn't have to get up to do it! ;)

In other exciting news...I finally finished decorating the nursery! Given the fact that we still haven't repainted Amos's room, I guess Levi is lucking out that his was completed first! ;)

I purchased the adorable Peanut Shell Woodland Dreams crib set at Babies 'R Us. Sadly, they are closing all of their stores, but this set may is hopefully available elsewhere as well. I also bought the changing pad cover, pillow and blanket there as well. All of the wall art was purchased at Hobby Lobby (the letter "L", the "be strong & brave sign", the metal geometric fox head, and the wooden arrow), except for the gray light box, which was from Target. I also purchased the starry globe nightlight and the navy room darkening curtains at Target.

The crib and dresser have now made it to all 4 boys (despite Amos's best efforts to destroy them)! They were also from Babies 'R Us, over nine years ago! The glider and ottoman (where I end up spending half my night too regularly) were purchased from Babies 'R Us before Noah was born. Adorable baby not included. ;)

It's hard to believe that the next time I post, half of his first year will already be behind us! The days may be long, but these years are flying by!

Levi is Four Months Old

Age of Baby: 4 months (given he's actually 5 months old today, I figured I better post this now...)

Size of Baby:

• Weight: 15 lbs 11 oz (down to the 56th percentile), +1 lb 2 oz from last month
• Length: 25.5 inches (up to the 66th percentile), +2 inches from last month
• Head circumference: 16.5 inches (up to the 59th percentile), +1 inch from his 2-month appt

Levi has been wearing a size 2 diaper most of the last month. He is wearing 3-6 month clothes and a size 2 shoe.

Immunizations:

• DTaP
• Hib
• PCV13
• Polio
• Rotavirus

Doctor's Visit Summary:

Levi's visit went very well. He is ahead developmentally, with the exception of rolling over. He's so close, but hasn't quite made it over yet. His weight has dropped just a bit in percentage, but he's still a hefty little guy. ;) Since his last visit, I had started taking pancreatic enzymes at the suggestion of the lactation consultant. Levi still has some cradle cap and a pretty significant amount of eczema all over his body, so she was thinking dairy in my diet was the culprit. We started by me eliminating all dairy for a week and starting the enzymes. I gradually added back in cheese and yogurt, but have continued to avoid milk and ice cream. It seems to be doing the trick fairly well, but he still occasionally has flare ups. We're going to try moisturizing multiple times a day to see if that helps. I'm sure the winter and the dry gas heat in the house haven't helped either though. Overall, the doctor was very happy with his progress, and we'll be back in 2 months for another check-up.

Picture of Baby:

Here is Levi's 4-month picture in the 12-month onesie. His eyes are still looking blue so far and it looks like he is trying to grow back some of the hair he's lost on the top of his head!

And here is a comparison of all four of the boys at four months, just for fun. Levi just squeezes past Noah to win the prize for heaviest of the four, but comes in 3rd for height. Ethan was 26.5 inches long and weighed 14 lbs 8.5 oz. Noah was 25.75 inches long and weighed 15 lbs 8 oz. And tiny little Amos was just 13 lbs 8 oz and 25.25 inches long. I still see a lot of Noah in Levi at this point. His head isn't quite as round/full, but he has his nose and fuller lips, I think.

Accomplishments this Month:

• Grasping objects
• His first antibiotic
• Playing in activity center
• Sitting up in the bumbo seat

Levi is really interacting well with us and his surroundings now. He can't keep his eyes off his brothers if they are in the room with him. Watching them is one of the easiest ways to keep him entertained! He loves "talking" to us, too. He has also started to play with the toys that are attached to his bouncer and his carseat. He'll bat at them and grasp them to hold them now, normally trying to pull them to his mouth. ;)

As you can see in the video, he really loves hanging out in his new activity center (thanks Grandpa and Grandma Seeley!) and being right up in the mix of things, sitting in his bumbo seat. He's quite the little supervisor while Mommy tries to get things accomplished. ;) We also got the high chair out for him. Though he hasn't started eating yet, he likes sitting at the table with the rest of us as we eat. He does sit there and drool and make eating motions as he watches us, so it may be time sooner than later to let him start! Haha!

Sadly, Levi has taken his first round of antibiotics already. All 3 of the other boys have been sick on and off with colds, ear infections and strep throat this winter, and it seems like Levi caught something. We didn't test him for strep, but he had been running a low-grade fever for awhile and was just super sleepy and out of it during the day, so we tried a round of antibiotics to see if that made a difference. It did seem to perk him up pretty quickly, despite the fact that he hated the super yummy pink medicine!

I wish I could report that Levi was sleeping through the night, but he's still not consistently. He'll sleep anywhere from 2.5 to 11.5 hours straight though! He did hit a new record of 11.5 hours near the end of January. I wish he could have kept that up, but it was short-lived! Sigh. I've continued to nurse him every 2-3 hours during the day for 15-20 minutes, and that almost always puts him to sleep, so that's when he naps!

Life is a bit slower now that we're through the holidays and Ethan's birthday, so maybe I'll actually get his 5-month update done at a reasonable time?!?