We have now passed 5 months! Emily is so stinkin' cute. :-) Things are really getting fun now as she plays with her toys and interacts with us, "talking" to us about everything going on her little world. I think she got her mom's gift for gab. She also got my sensitivity, as she still likes to express her displeasure in many things as well. Typical baby stuff, but I long to mold her as she gets older into a girl who can get past the negatives in life (I struggle a lot with this myself!) I've often heard that it is very convicting to be a parent, because you are trying to train your children to do things that you are not good at yourself. We are not necessarily into the "parenting" and training realm per se, but I can already see so many things about myself that need to be refined before I expect Emily to follow my lead. Better get started now!
Over the past month, Emily has had many family visitors in town loving on her. She has also had many outings to the grocery store, my allergy office for weekly allergy shots, my workplace where I still do data entry part time, and the mall to see Santa! We have also made a few new friends along the way who we hope to spend more time with after the holidays.
We are having fun learning to sit and playing with anything and everything that Emily's little hands can grasp. Her favorite object is still a plain old burp cloth. The moment her fingers touch one, she swoops it up into her mouth and gives me a big smile! As soon as this girl can have a lovey, I am sure it will become a staple item in our house. She LOVES Buddy now. Aside from Daddy, Buddy's mere presence gets the most smiles out of her. He can be sitting on the couch and she catches a glimpse of him and just floods with joy. Amazing. I hope these two get to be best of friends in another year! Emily loves when we nuzzle our heads into her belly and she gets to pull our hair or touch our faces. She still much prefers being on her back and kicking over any other position, but lately she has become more content to play with toys while on her belly and while sitting in a chair. I think she wants to move, but she hasn't figured out how to roll yet. She'll get there when she's ready. :-) My guess is that she'll do back to tummy first, but we'll see.
We are still exclusively nursing. The bottle has held a little bit of success, but frankly it is a whole lot of work to pump, attempt the bottle, and clean it all up, so I've succumbed to just sticking with nursing for now. She will get her first bites of rice cereal around 6 months, and I am thinking about just skipping the bottle and working on sippy cups from here on out. We are waiting on the solid food since we have a history of food allergies (and every other allergy imaginable!) in our family. Hopefully delaying the introduction will give her the gift of an open diet throughout her life. :-)
I am thinking that teething has begun, although I see no fruit from all this discomfort yet. She is drooling, has a stuffy nose, cries fitfully as she bites down on teethers or my finger in the late afternoon or middle of the night, so I think that must be what it is! A friend at church today said that her son had painful teething symptoms for 2 whole months before he cut his first tooth- and he cut 6 at once! What a tough 2 months!
Sleeping has gotten better in many respects. Emily often has a 2 hour nap in the morning now, which has been such a blessing to help me ease into the day! It also makes her a happy camper for an outing in the late morning most days. Afternoon naps are variable. Sometimes they are long and others are short. Sometimes it takes 3 30 minute naps through the afternoon to get her to bedtime, but we are making it work! We had a rough week of night sleep about a week ago, but the past few days she's only woken up 3 times at night. I've fed her 2 of those each time. I think we are getting into a rhythm with that now. I am sooo ready for her to sleep "through the night"...as in blissfully giving me those 10-12 hours so many people already enjoy, but as I continue to watch her, I don't think she's quite ready yet. I am fighting the urge to enforce it myself. We'll see what happens over the next month or so. It is hard to hear comments from well meaning people like "Is she sleeping through the night yet for you?" As if good babies sleep through the night and don't bother their parents and bad babies need to eat or need comfort in the middle of the night. I try so hard to have a smile and a nice reply to this question, especially for the older ladies who ask.
All of this to say, we are so thankful to the Lord for these 5 months with Emily! She is more beautiful, fun, and precious than we could ever imagine. I am trying to savor every stage and every moment along the way.
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