Being Momma G: Day 152

Our little man is 5 months old!

In the past month, Sean has gotten taller and stronger and smarter, and much much much cheekier. The little man has started to recognise faces, and he grins and grins and grins when he sees his Daddy and his Mummy.

Sean is now on solids, having started eating real food a few weeks ago. Sean has been introduced to the delights of vegetables and fruit, and our hungry little man just gobbles up everything that is put in front of him. Every day, Sean gets 3 meals of solids, each meal consisting of 3 cubes of food and a tablespoon of rice cereal, and sometimes, he will thump the table as if he is asking for more! There is now a wide selection of vegetables and fruit to choose from, having sampled pumpkin, zucchini, carrot, sweet potato, apple and pear. I am having lots of fun making the food too!

Our little drooly monster is drooling more than ever. We are going through at least 5 bibs a day, and I seem to be washing all the bibs every second day! And we own a ridiculous number of bibs!

Sean is still learning to sleep through the night, but there is hope that he is slowly realising that night time is for sleeping - the whole way through. Sean has improved by leaps and bounds with his day sleeps - he will sleep at least an hour after each meal; sometimes 2 hours; and on the odd occasion, 3 hours. Sean is now able to fall asleep on his own without any help from us, but is still having some issues resettling if he wakes too soon.

Our strong little man is almost able to sit up on his own! Sean uses his strong little arms to prop himself up when we sit him up straight, and his strong neck and back muscles do the rest. Speaking of those strong little arms, they now pack a punch when he is swinging those arms and hitting us - Jonathan is often surprised to feel the force behind Sean's little arms, which I am already aware of as Sean loves to hit my chest when he is breast feeding.

Yesterday, our wriggly little monster showed me he can crawl. Not very well, but he can certainly crawl. Sean uses his arms to balance him, while using his legs to raise his bottom to scooch his lower half of his body forward, and his face to scooch his head forward. Sean hasn't yet worked out that he should be using his arms and hands to help his legs, but it's funny to watch our little worm wriggle around!

Sean was busy showing off yesterday, for he also showed me that he can roll on to his back when I put him on his tummy. Sean has learned to tuck one arm to his side, and use the other arm to push himself over on to his back. Did I mention he's gotten smarter???

We are loving how much the little man is growing and showing his personality. Sean really is so much fun these days!

To show us how much he was improving with his sleep, Sean only woke once during the night for a feed. I tried my darnedest to stay awake during the 2.30am feed, but alas, I failed and woke at 4am to find the little man snug and cosy and fast asleep. I took Sean back to his own cot, where he stayed asleep until 8.30am.

Sean slept for only an hour after his breakfast, and try as I might, the little man refused to go back to sleep for longer than 10 minutes at a time. I stopped fighting him after 45 minutes and brought him out to the lounge room, where we played until it was time to have lunch. The poor little man was getting tired again by the time lunch was served, and was a little bit fussy during the feed.

We were due to meet the Mothers Group mums and bubs at Pattison's Top Ryde at 2pm, so after lunch, we got ready to head out. I brought the Bonds sleeping bag and the Sleepy Wings, in hope that Sean would again sleep like the little angel he was at Charmaine's house while we were out.

We swung by Chemist Depot first to get Sean weighed, and he has gained a convincing amount of weight in the past week. Our little man is now 6.7kg!

Another lovely afternoon was spent talking to the ladies. I love everyone at Mothers Group - all the mums are all so lovely, and we all able to share our stories with one another. While I caught up with the mums, Sean behaved liked the angel he can be and slept in the pram for 50 minutes. Sean was pretty tired by the time we arrived at Pattison's, so after saying hello to everyone, I put Sean in his Sleepy Wings and into the Bonds sleeping bag, and within a minute of being in the pram, Sean was fast asleep. Looks like we will be taking the Sleepy Wings and the Bonds sleeping bag out with us in future!

Soon, one by one, the mothers started leaving, and even though we all wanted to stay and chat into the night, we all reluctantly left Pattison's to run various errands and head home to cook dinner. Sean and I headed to Woolworths and bought some vegetables for him, and meats and sausages for dinner. Sean was becoming more and more hungry, and made it be known too. After getting home, I tried my best to start dinner for Jonathan and me (roast beef with pumpkin, potato and garlic, and blanched green beans and brussel sprouts) and feed Sean at the same time. Sean was so hungry, he wolfed down the sweet potato and pear and rice cereal mix and looked like he could have had more!

Somehow, I got Sean fed and changed and our dinner into the oven without too many dramas, and afterwards, Sean and I sat down to a breast feed, before a spell in bed for our little man. Jonathan came home to the gorgeous aromas of our dinner wafting through the house, and just as dinner was about to be served, the little man protested loudly to join us for dinner.

The roast beef was cooked perfectly. As were all the vegetables. Jonathan was so impressed with the meal, and there was enough leftovers for Jonathan to take to work tomorrow and be the envy of everyone in the office!

After dinner, Jonathan and Sean had some play time before we gave Sean a bottle of expressed breast milk, which Sean all but rejected at first, but eventually, we got the lot into his tummy. Not sure why he was so fussy with that bottle, as he normally had no trouble at all and all but inhale the milk in minutes.

The little man is now asleep after having a bath and had his nightly massage with all his lotions and potions. Jonathan is in bed reading and I've just finished expressing milk for tomorrow night's feed. I'm more tired tonight than usual, so I think I'll go to bed and watch 5 minutes of TV before falling asleep. I still can't believe my baby is 5 months old today. Yikes!