All About Jude: 5 Months Old

Dear Jude,
You are five months old and completely full of life!  Your personality is showing more and more!  Every minute of every day, I find myself falling more and more in love with you!  You are still a very easy baby and for that, I am so grateful!

Here is what you are up to:

• You are a little over 24 inches tall and weigh around 14 pounds.  You are now in the 5th percentile in both length and weight.  I didn't measure your head, but I'm thinking you are probably still in the 24th percentile in head circumference.  This is why your head looks so big compared to your body!  I love it!  Hopefully, that means you are going to be smart, smart, smart!  =)
• You are wearing 3-6 month clothes and size 1-2 diapers.  We still have yet to buy you diapers!!!!
• You love your exersaucer!  You can entertain yourself in it forever!  It's so nice to be able to put you down every once in awhile and know you're going to be super happy.
• You and your Daddy completely bonded while we were in Chicago and you are possibly as crazy about him as you are me.  I'm only a little jealous.
• You are a MOVER.  You may not be able to officially crawl yet, but you can get around... that's for sure!
• You still LOVE to stand up.  You can hold all of your weight and you love locking your knees.
• You are at a really oral stage... everything goes in your mouth and you pretty much always have to have something in it.
• If there is something in your reach, you will go for it and you will grab onto it with a death grip.  I see a lot of toy stealing in your future!
• You spit up all.the.time.  It's crazy how much you spit up.  I asked the pediatrician and he says it's not a big deal, but it is a serious laundry issue!
• You've really taken to your Bumbo and will sit in it and play with toys when you're not in your exersaucer.
• You love t.v.  As much as I try to prevent you from watching it when your sister is, you still find ways to watch.  For instance, I had you on the Boppy facing away from the t.v. and you arched your back over the Boppy until you could watch upside down.  
• You went on your first airplane this month and did amazing!  You only had a couple of crying spills and they were both less than 30 seconds.
• You are having major issues with your swaddle blanket.  It is becoming a huge problem.  You can wiggle your arms out, but then you're mad that they are out.  When they're out, you always pull your binky out and though you can get your hands in your mouth, they aren't completely satisfying to you.
• Because of the swaddle blanket issue, you are not sleeping through the night.  You wake up between 2:30 and 3:30 every morning halfway unswaddled.  I've tried to swaddle you with one arm out to begin the weaning process, but you simply can't fall asleep without being completely swaddled.  Mommy is exhausted so we need to get this worked out soon!
• During the day, you are now on a great ROUTINE!!!!  Finally!  You eat at 7 or 7:30 a.m., nap at 9:30 a.m., eat again at 11:00 a.m., nap at 12:30 p.m. (which is one your sister sleeps... YaY!), eat again at 3:00 p.m., catnap around 5:00 p.m., eat at 7 p.m., down for good at 7:30 p.m., and a dream feed at 10:30 p.m.
• You're a bit of a busy body and now won't fall asleep when we are out running errands.  You don't get cranky, but I try not to run errands during your naptime anymore.
• You laugh so much more now than you did last month and it is just amazing.
• I love that you are smiling in both of these 5 month old pictures because you really are soooo happy!
• You are very observant.  You watch everything we do.... you especially watch your sister which is why I think you took so quickly to a spoon and rice cereal.  You've started reaching for her sippy cup so it's just a matter of time before you'll be drinking from something other than a bottle.
• This month we had to start supplementing with formula.  I am sooooo sad about this because I really wanted to breastfeed you exclusively, but I am thankful that I am still able to breastfeed and just give you a little boost with formula.  Right now, you are taking 5-6 ounces each of your 5 feedings.  In the morning, I do not have to supplement, but my supply goes down as the day continues.  Thankfully, I pump about 5 ounces each morning so I supplement some with breastmilk as well as formula.
• You still love your feet!
• You have rolled from your back to your stomach this month, but don't do it consistently.
• Your hair is starting to grow a bit.  I can't wait for it to come in and see what color and texture it is.
• You continue to be a cuddle bug and I hope that never changes!
• You have started sucking your thumb a little bit, but still prefer your binky so far.
• I have started to see a bit of independence in you which I'm hoping will continue to develop.  You will definitely need that to handle your sister!  You adore her by the way and she absolutely adores you!  I'm praying you all will be close always.
• I love you, my sweet little son!  This has been a great five months and I am so thankful for you!

Love,

Mommy

Jude's Milestones: Rice Cereal

To celebrate Jude's 5 month birthday on Saturday, we gave him some rice cereal!  I can hardly believe my little J is ready for "real" food!

When we were at the pediatrician's office a couple of weeks ago, Dr. K suggested starting him on solids to help with my "just barely enough" milk supply.  I was completely hesitant because we didn't start Finley on solids until 6 months and I had read a lot of information on why we should delay solids.  However, Dr. K completely eased my fears and I was excited to be able to supplement with something besides formula.

So Saturday was the day!  Dr. K said we would know if he was ready or not and let's just be clear... JUDE WAS READY FOR SOLIDS!!!!!!  Oh, my word!  It was the funniest thing EVER!  He literally lit up when he saw the spoon coming to his mouth and instantly tried to grab it and shove it in his mouth.  We couldn't feed it to him fast enough.

When we first gave Finley solids, she did the whole tongue thrust thing where she couldn't figure out how to swallow it.  Jude does that every once in awhile, but for the most part, he had no problem figuring out how real food works!

I admit I was very thankful that the decision to start solids was made very apparent!  It's reassuring to know that we are definitely making the right choice in starting now versus later!

For instance, this was what he did when the rice cereal was gone....

Clearly, he has my love of food!!!!! =)

And because I haven't taken the time to post any comparison pics of my two kiddos, here is a picture of Finley eating rice cereal....  I think it was the second time we gave it to her because the first time I had her dressed really cute with a bow in her hair!  I thought this picture was better for comparison sake!

This doesn't even look like her to me!!!!

I can't wait to see what Jude looks like in another couple of years!