5 months old! Really?!

Of course, a lot has happened with our sweet Georgia since I last updated the blog. She is now 5 months old! Where does time go? I really don’t know how 5 months got here so quickly. 5 months was the age I was not ready for… it’s just that much closer to 6 months, and that much closer to a year. It breaks my heart, really. Our sweet girl is rolling front to back and back to front. She mastered the back to front roll right at 4 months…. But then it took her about another month to get the hang of going front to back. And can I just tell you, that was a long month for mom and dad. Imagine a sweet baby that can roll to her tummy, laugh and play for a little while, but then when it’s time to roll to her back, she just can’t do it. It makes for a very mad baby J! But we knew it wouldn’t be long before she could do it. Also, we are now on a 4 hour schedule. We started this a few weeks ago and she took to it like a champion. She was ready for it, I just didn’t know it. You see, we had tried it a couple of months back… if you remember, Georgia tried to move herself to a 4 hour schedule. She did well for a little while but then it started messing with her sleep pattern (at night) and mommy and daddy did not like that very well. Since changing her schedule this past time, this is what it looks like.

7-7:30 a.m. - Wake up and Take Prevacid

7:30 or 7:45 a.m. – 6 oz bottle

9-11 a.m. – Nap

11 a.m. – 6 oz bottle

1-3 p.m. – Nap

3 p.m. – 6 oz bottle

4:30 – 5:30 p.m. – Nap – only when the second nap was missed

5:30 p.m. – Solids

7:00 – 6 oz. bottle w/ 3 tbsp of cereal – BEDTIME

We just started implementing solids, so we are still only eating them 1 time a day. Eventually, we’ll add them in at breakfast and lunch. We’re in no rush to do so because she seems to be just fine with what we’re doing now. Our pediatrician also said that 6 months is really the age to introduce solids so we don’t want to go full force until then. But Georgia loves her solid food! Every time we feed her something knew, she looks at us like “Why have you been keeping this from me?” The first solid food we tried was sweet potatoes and she loved them. I still think that’s her favorite. Then we tried pears, green beans, apples, and peas. We give her the same food for 4 days so that if she ever has an allergic reaction, we’ll be able to pinpoint which food it is. This week we bought carrots, peaches and bananas. Yumm, I think she’ll love them all!  She has loved everything we’ve tried so far. I’m just waiting for that food she refuses to eat. J

Georgia’s 4 month check up went great. She was 16 lbs 2 oz and 25 ¼ inches long. 95^th percentile for weight and length. J I weighed her yesterday and she is now 17 lbs 2 oz.

She cried while getting her shots, but as soon as it was over she was fine. The rest of the day was like any other day and she slept fine that night. I pray that she responds this way every time she gets shots.

Well, that’s an update on Georgia’s latest. But there’s a lot of info left out since the last time I blogged was 3 months ago :/  So, I’ll fill in a few gaps. In my last blog post, I was discussing Georgia’s sleeping patterns. I thought I’d never have a baby who slept all night b/c her sleep seemed to be regressing. Well now I can proudly say, I have a baby who loves to sleep at night (like her mommy). At 11 weeks, we moved Georgia out of our room and into her crib and gradually started pushing her bedtime back. It went from 9 p.m. to 8 p.m., and then to 7:30 p.m. and eventually we got to 7 p.m., which was our goal. The first night we put her in her crib, she slept until 7 a.m. We could not believe it! My assumptions were right… she was getting too long to sleep comfortably in her Rock N Play Sleeper. She would try to stretch her legs at night but didn’t have much room. It would wake her up in the process and she couldn’t put herself back to sleep. So, enter mommy rocking baby a lot in the middle of the night. J That’s okay; I wouldn’t trade those nights for anything!! But don’t get me wrong, I love my 12 hour sleeper. It really does work out great for us as a family, too. Michael and I play with her, hold her, bathe her etc. until bedtime at 7. After she goes to bed, it gives me and Michael a couple of hours to spend together without any distractions.

I started back to work when Georgia turned 3 months old. It was very hard at first… I thought a lot about staying at home with her. It was so hard to go from spending every waking (and sleeping) moment with her for 3 months to just all of a sudden being away from her all day. Just recently (the last couple of weeks) I have adjusted to being back at work. I get a sense of accomplishment from working and I’m actually able to get more done outside of the house. Sounds weird, I know. But I’m fortunate to have a job that allows me to have a flexible schedule and run errands while on the road. I can go by the bank if I need to, or drop off clothes at the dry cleaners, pick up prescriptions, etc… the list could go on and on. But these things are tough when you have a baby. At least it was for me. Maybe it was just because she was so itty bitty when I was at home with her but we didn’t get out much. It is so much harder than you can imagine to get yourself dressed, a baby dressed, everything packed in the diaper bag “just in case”, load her in the car, remember to grab your purse, diaper bag, to-do list, etc and get on your way. By the time I got in the car, I was exhausted. Haha! I hope this doesn’t sound like I’d rather work than be with my baby, because that is not the case at all! I’d love nothing more than to be a stay at home mommy but that just won’t work for our family right now so I’m making the best of my situation. I am definitely the most blessed working mom out there though. I drop her off at 8:30 a.m. and get to pick her up by 3:30 or 4 o clock everyday. She naps for 4 hours out of the 7 that I’m away so I can handle that. J We’re so fortunate to not have to take her to a daycare, also. Mrs. Caroline, the lady that keeps her, loves Georgia so much. Georgia is the only baby that she keeps so she gets plenty of attention. Working has given me a greater appreciation for my time with her now. During my maternity leave, there were days that Michael would walk in and I’d hand Georgia over because it had been one of “those” days. Now, I don’t really have those anymore. I have more patience with her because I know our time is precious. That sweet baby is loved more than she’ll ever know! One day, I’d like to think that I’ll get to stay home with her… one day. God is good and He has a plan for us. Whatever it is, I will follow.