5 month update

So lil J is growing up fast, fast, fast--as all children do. He is now 5 months old.

For some reason I have a really hard time getting an accurate length on him & don't have that info yet, but he is 20.8 pounds now. And his head measures about 17 inches now. I am waiting to get a length before I plug it into the percentile calculator like I did last time.

He now rolls over on his tummy (quite often) & occasionally will roll back onto his back when he's tired of his tummy--but most of the time he'll lay there on his tummy & scream about being tired of it. He sits up well when you put him there, he just can't do the sitting up part himself yet. He still tries to crawl & gets frustrated because he can't yet. He's still lacking strength in lifting his chest area & overall coordination. He does scoot himself around a lot on his tummy though.

He makes more & more "verbalizations" all the time. One recent one is a coughing type sound. I told hubby to just ignore it & he will eventually stop it. The more you encourage sounds the more he makes them & for the most part I encourage them all, except this one--it almost sounds like he's choking. Hubby was trying to tell him no & discipline him for it at first, to try to teach him to not do it. But it wasn't working & I told hubby I feel he's still getting attention for making the sound, which is what he's looking for, whether negative or positive, it's still attention. So he agreed & we now both ignore it.

It is amazing to me how at such a young age I can clearly see that he wants parental approval. He seeks to please us & loves praise & encouragement in whatever he does & will do it even more if he sees that we like it & are happy about it.

We have started the "Your Baby Can Read" program & also the Spanish program they have as well. The first few times I ran the DVD he wasn't too interested (the English one that is, he does enjoy the Spanish one a lot cuz it has a lot of sound effects), but now he's starting to really watch it (as long as he's not sleepy, then he'll just fall asleep).

He's wearing size 9 month clothes, except for a few of his pants/shorts--some of these are still 6 month & fitting him.

He's doing really well on solids. For his 4th month I fed him solids once per day--lunchtime. Now for his 5th month I have added on breakfast along with lunch. So far it's just rice cereal for breakfast & then I vary the lunch. Today he's gonna eat carrots & if he likes it I'll give it to him for a few days & then I'm ready to start him on some fruits. And I made some millet puree last week--my book on making your own baby food says that millet is great to mix with fruit so that's what I'm planning to do with it.

He's really fighting his nap times most of the time. He screams bloody murder about it. Hubby & I cannot seem to reach an agreement on this. I feel (& have read in all my books on parenting that I've been reading) that you need to let them cry it out & eventually they'll see that it's pointless to do so & will stop. But hubby wants to run to him every second he fusses or cries. I am praying that we can somehow come to an agreement on this topic or else we're never going to get anywhere. I feel like I have a very structured week & then on the weekend chaos breaks out cuz daddy does things so differently than I do. I'm sure we're not the first or only couple to go through this, but it sure is tough. I told hubby he needs to call Focus on the Family & speak with the counselors there & when he hears them tell him what I'm telling him maybe then he'll listen. I don't know what else to do.........

That's all the updates I can think of for now. Hubby is always telling me to be careful when I talk about what little one is doing--he says other parents often get offended & feel like you're bragging about your kid. Perhaps I should point out that I don't say any of this in a bragging sort of way. I am just in awe cuz I've never witnessed a baby develop before. I'm not saying my kid is better or faster or slower than any other--they are all different. I'm just in awe of the whole overall process, that's all.