5 Month Update

I suppose Megan is 5 months old now. If you looked at the Lilypie counter on our blog, yesterday it said Megan was 4 months, 4 weeks and 1 day and today it says she is 5 months and 1 day. She was never 5 months exactly... so at some point between yesterday and today, Megan turned 5 months old.

Some of Megan's new skills and fun things now include:

- Rolling over from her back to her stomach (as seen in the last post). She does it all the time, but still hasn't rolled from her stomach to her back. She's got to be strong enough, I just don't know if she has ever wanted to enough.

- I didn't practice at all until about a month ago since she was born, and the first time I played she really seemed interested. Once she was complaining, and then when I started playing my oboe she stopped and watched me play. It made me so happy. :)

I gave her a blank reed to play with briefly while I took pictures.

- She moves around a lot more in her crib. I have since put in the bumper since I'm confident enough that she isn't in danger of smothering herself anymore, and she kept waking herself up from having her head against the side, or her legs would get between the bars.

-Sometimes when she needs a little help falling asleep for her naps, I give her the pacifier, and she doesn't really suck on it. She grabs it and chews on it like a toy. Then I come back in to see the pacifier on the bed next to her head, or she's still holding it:

Along with playing with her pacifier as she goes to sleep, she'll often grab the blankets and chew on them and whatnot. The other day when I went in to make sure she fell asleep I found her like this:

It was actually even funnier than that. Both of her hands were up and it looked like she was ready to play peek-a-boo, except that she was asleep. Of course I didn't want her to sleep with it on her head, so I gently tried to move it from her face, and this was the best I could do:

She had a death grip on the blanket and didn't want to let go. I think she likes to snuggle up with blankets and things. Yesterday I found her like this:

Except it was even funnier--it was on top of her head like a hat. Of course, I moved it from the crib after taking the picture. She's just so cute.

- She now thinks that 7 am is her wake up time. Which, 7 am isn't really that bad, but I was getting used to 8 or 8:30 and really enjoying it. Hopefully it stays at 7 and doesn't steadily get earlier as it gets brighter earlier. She still goes to bed around 8 or 8:30. Last night she went to bed at 7:30 because she missed her evening nap, and still woke up at a little after 7. Maybe I should try putting her to sleep a little earlier?

- No solid foods yet. She isn't acting any hungrier than usual, so my milk seems to be pretty satisfactory. Sometime this month I'll introduce some of the cereal.

- She's outgrowing her 3-6 month clothes, which makes me so sad because we got so many cute ones at Christmas. She'll make the transition to 6-9 month clothes in a week or so, probably.

- She can kind of sit up on her own for a little bit:

She kind of sinks forward slowly and folds in half eventually. :P She does much better on softer surfaces like the bed, or my lap. She loses her balance pretty easily on the floor. Also, if she leans towards something to grab it, she usually starts to fall over. When I took these pictures, her hands stabilizing her were the only reason she stayed up. It's a start!

- I think her bald spot is funny.

Though, I don't think it's as bad as it could be. There's still a pretty good amount of hair there. It kind of looks like the hair that's growing in is blonde, but it's hard to tell.

- She gets more distracted when I nurse her. Sometimes I read while I feed her, and after about 4 or 5 minutes it's like she knows there's a book behind her. She'll suddenly stop and turn her head towards the book. I got to where I would hide if from her view as soon as she went looking for it. If I kept the book there she would try to reach for it instead of eating. If she didn't see the book when she turned her head then she would immediately turn back and keep eating. It was like she was trying to catch me reading. It made me laugh every time. "Nope, there's no book there. Keep eating."

- Her new favorite toy is her little "picture album" I got her for Christmas. It's supposed to have pictures in it, but I never put pictures in it, and watching the way she grabs it and bends it and eats it, I don't really want to. I think she likes the different patterns the pages have on them and it has a nice handle on the end that she likes to chew on. She still likes her keys, but this picture album can keep her entertained for a good half hour to 45 minutes minutes.

Happy 5 months, Megan!