Cooper's Fifth Month

Cooper was 4 months old (in his 5th month) from October 25 - November 24.  Here's what he was up to this month:


Stats:
Weight: 17 1/2 lbs
Diaper: Size 2, but we only have about 20 left before he'll be in size 3.
Clothes: Very few 3-6 month, mostly all 6 month, and just starting to get into 6-9 month stuff.

Eating:  Just like last month, this boy is still an eater!  Not too much has changed from last month.  He's still averaging 32-35 ounces in a day.  He eats 4 times during the day and his bottles are between 7-8 oz per feeding.  He still wakes up once (and every once in a while twice) to eat in the middle of the night, and when he does, he gets 5 oz (or less).

This totally makes me laugh every time.

We did try cereal the last week of the month, but he is not a fan yet.  Really, I think he just doesn't *get* it.  I think once he does, he will be chowing down!  Here are some pics from our first attempt at cereal:

Sleeping:  This has been a month of hard sleeping, for sure.  We have definitely hit the "4 month sleep regression" and we have had a time with naps!  He went from being a wonderful napper, so not really napping well at all.  Before, when he would have a bad nap, we would just get him out and hold him and he would go back to sleep.  Not anymore.  Now, if you get him out, he thinks it's play time and will laugh and look around (and not go back to sleep).  While I was home on Thanksgiving break, we did CIO during naps, and that has helped significantly.  He still is struggling with naps a little, but over the whole week, I haven't gone in there during nap time once.  When he wakes up, he'll fuss, complain, cry a little, and then go back to sleep.

Luckily, he hasn't had a regression with his night time sleep.  It still hasn't really gotten any better, but I'm thankful that it hasn't gotten any worse.  He did sleep through the night one night this month (and I was up a ton super worried about him!), but he hasn't done it again.  

Schedule:  He has finally moved to the 4 hour schedule and we are all so much happier about it!  Here's what his new schedule looks like:

7:00 up and eat (7 oz)
8:30 down for nap
11:00 up and eat (8 oz)
12:30 down for nap
3:00 up and eat (7 oz)
4:30 down for a cat nap
5:00ish up from nap
6:30 bath
6:45 bottle (8 oz)
7:00 bed time
He still gets up once (sometimes twice, but it's not as often) around 1:30 - 2:30 to eat.  He eats 5 oz and goes straight back to bed.

Rolling/Scooting:  When it comes to rolling, Cooper can still go from front to back, but he hasn't quite mastered going from back to front yet.  Some days he tries sooo hard and gets super close (all the way on his side), but just never seems to quite get there.  Then other days, he's completely uninterested and doesn't even seem to try.  He's just so big, the poor boy has so much to roll.  :)

While he may not be rolling, he is scooting up a storm!  If you put him on either his back or his belly, he can scoot all over the place! It involves a lot of wiggling, but he can sure get around.

Crawling: No, he's obviously not crawling yet, but he sure is trying!  When you put him on his tummy, he puts his face to the ground and pulls his knees up under him.  It's not effective (and he doesn't go anywhere), but it shows me that he's really starting to think about it!

Fingers/Teething: He still puts his hands (well - EVERYTHING) in his mouth ALL.  THE.  TIME. but I've come to the conclusion that I think that it's strictly a teething/curiosity thing.  I do not think that he does it for comfort at all.  He never actually sucks on them, he just chews.  He also never does it while he's sleeping or trying to go to sleep.

Sitting:  I wouldn't classify him as a "sitter" just yet, but he's awful close!  We've been giving him the chance to practice a little bit during his awake times lately, and it seems to have paid off.  When we took his 5 month pictures, he leaned forward, put his hands down, and sat all by himself!

Swaddling:  It's official - he's no longer swaddled!  We had been slowly weaning him for a few weeks, and I made the last few jumps out of it over Thanksgiving break.  He still wears him woombie for naps and night, but both arms are out.  It just gives him a comfort of tightness around his body, but his arms and legs are free.  I hope to break him from the woombie completely here soon!

Spitting Up:  I'm telling you, this child is textbook definition of a "happy spitter".  I mentioned it at his 4 month well baby check, and she said as long as it wasn't after every single feeding, and he was happy about it, it was nothing to worry about.  I mean, obviously he's gaining weight fine (hello - 17 lbs.), so that's not an issue.  But seriously, it gets EVERYWHERE.  And it's disgusting.  He's had to start wearing bibs almost constantly, and I've just had to get used to changing clothes a lot.  But seriously - it still grosses me out.

Jumper:  If there is one constant happy place for my boy, his jumper is it.  He LOVES it.  He has also really learned how to use it, so his enjoyment level has gone through the roof.  He just jumps and jumps until his little heart is content.  He has finally learned how to play with the toys (instead of just staring at them), and it honestly is the place where he is the most happy.  It's SO cute to watch him in there.  :)

Jumping and cheering on the Noles.  :)

Funny Face:  For a few days, Cooper was constantly making this really silly face.  I don't know where it came from, and it didn't last long, but it sure was cute!!  I tried my hardest to get a picture of it. He was moving like crazy, so a lot of them are blurry, but you'll get the idea.  :)

Bahaha.

Bruise:  It's getting hard for me to tell if it's getting any smaller/lighter??  Some days I think it is, and some days I think it isn't.  I tried to google one day to see if I could find anything about it (by the way - don't ever do that.  Google will ALWAYS convince you that you are dying), but I actually found NOTHING that even sounded remotely like what he has.  So I'm still as clueless as before.  

Lorelai:  This little boy LOVES his sister.  And LL is doing GREAT with him.  Honestly, she has even surpassed by highest expectations of how she would be as a big sister.  They both just adore each other, and she really loves to take care of him.  She reads to him, kisses on him, holds him, feeding him, plays with him.  I mean, they just are little buddies!  When she is in the room, he can't keep his eyes off of her.  He watches (and listens) to everything that she does!

The only "issue" we've been dealing with is Cooper's toys.  When he was smaller, they would "share" toys.  What this meant was, since Cooper was really too small to play with stuff, he would look at it, and "share" with her to let her play with them.  Now that he's old enough to start playing with his own toys, she doesn't like it when he is having his turn.  Her version of "sharing" means "it's mine".  We've really been trying to talk with her about his toys vs. her toys, letting him play, baby toys vs. big girl toys, etc.  But I don't think it's working.  I'm a little ton nervous about how Christmas is going to go.  I foresee lots of meltdowns.  Any tips for helping an older sibling understand that the baby has their own toys???

Here are some extra pics of my little man this month:

Learning how to ride on my hip.  :)

LL was out of town and we took Coop to our church's fall festival.

I LOVE wearing him.

He just MELTS my heart!

How can you not fall in love with this face??

First time going to a restaurant!

He was sooooo confused - haha.

Still confused.  :)

Family snuggle time on a Saturday morning.