5 Months

Dear Emma,

Wow, what a month! I know I say that EVERY month, but I can’t help it. You are still growing and changing and learning so much on a daily basis that a few weeks make a huge difference.

The big thing this month was your first Christmas! I know you won’t remember it, but it was pretty special for your dad and me to spend our first Christmas as a family of three here in our own home. We both got up early — because there’s really no such thing as sleeping in anymore now that you are here — and sat down in a little circle in the living room to open presents.

Dad and I got you an exersaucer for Christmas, and you sat patiently in Dad’s lap that morning watching me for the whole 15 minutes it took to snap all the pieces together. I’m happy to report that you LOVE that thing — and to our amazement, you have already figured out how several of the items work. You can flip the killer whale around with a whack of your hand, and pull on the turtle to trigger a burst of music. But your favorite is probably the little red crab, which you like to suck on endlessly.

A few days after Christmas, your Gima came to visit us! Well, ok, let’s be realistic. She came to visit YOU, and Dad and I were just a bonus. Can you believe she hadn’t seen you since you were a week old? We all had a great time with her here, and the two of you spent a lot of quality time together reading and playing and rocking and walking around the living room — the latter two mainly because you never felt like napping! (More on that in a minute.) I lamented the fact that she doesn’t live closer so we could all see her more often, but for now, we’ll make sure to keep Skyping every week, and you’ll see her again when we all go to North Carolina in April! You are one lucky little girl to have so many people who love you.

As usual, you’ve made several developmental leaps in the last month. One of the biggest is that you learned to roll over! Although we still put you down on your back to sleep, you rarely stay there for more than a minute or two and roll from back to front like it’s no big deal. You haven’t figured out how to go the other way yet — but that’s ok because you LOVE sleeping on your tummy. Still, this means an end to napping on the couch, unless we’re willing to sit next to you the whole time. That seemed like as good a reason as any to transition to napping solely in your crib (instead of the couch, or your swing, or your bouncy seat), so we did.

You’re definitely a tummy sleeper now!

You had a REALLY rough time with naps over Christmas break, rarely sleeping for more than 30 or 45 minutes at a time. Thankfully, you were still sleeping well at night! Because of that, and because of the rolling over, and because we were putting you in your crib for naps for the first time, I chalked it up to typical baby sleep regression. And after peaking in the few days leading up to New Years (and a few days of somewhat agonizing “cry it out” periods), your napping started to improve. The last three days have been a lot better. At daycare on Friday, you took a 2-hour nap — and might have slept longer if they hadn’t had to wake you up to eat since we were picking you up early for a doctor’s appointment!

Reading with Dad. It’s so cool to see you interested in books now!

Yep, we took you to the doctor to have her check out the minor cough and congestion that have been plaguing you on and off since Thanksgiving. She wasn’t really concerned about the cough and congestion, and we just have to let it run its course. However, the doctor did discover that you had an ear infection — which was a surprise since you hadn’t been showing any symptoms! (Cough and congestion are not symptoms of an ear infection, interestingly enough.) She said it was minor enough that she wouldn’t even treat an older child, but since you’re still under 6 months old, we ended up with a prescription for amoxicillin.

But then it hit me like a ton of bricks. Maybe these two things were related. Maybe your trouble with naps WASN’T just a sleep regression. Maybe your ear was bothering you! Maybe the trouble napping WAS the big symptom.

Oh. OH. The doctor said there was no way to know how long you’d had the ear infection, but suddenly everything seems to fit. And I felt awful! Why didn’t I recognize that it might have been something other than a sleep regression? That sleeping well at night didn’t necessarily mean there wasn’t something bothering you during the day? Oh Emma, I’m so sorry that I didn’t pick up on what in retrospect seems to be an obvious sign of discomfort. I promise I will try my hardest not to let that happen again.

In other big news, you started eating solid foods last week! The doctor had told us we could start at your 4-month appointment, but we decided to wait until after the holidays. Dad carefully steamed a batch of carrots, pureed them in the food processor, and separated them into small amounts. I mixed in some of your formula to make it nice and soupy, and we sat you down to give it a go. You seemed really interested and were even reaching for Dad’s hand — but then you changed your mind. Oh boy did you change your mind! It took 20 minutes to quiet your screaming!

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But of course you can’t drink formula forever, so we tried again the next day with you sitting in the comfort of Gima’s lap. You still seemed pretty wary, but I think you’re starting to get the hang of it. After a few more days of carrots, we switched things up and gave you some mashed up banana. You seemed to like that better than the carrots, so we’ll keep doing that for a few days and see what happens!

At the same time, we’re trying to wean you off your late night bottle. Ever since I went back to work, we’ve been giving you a bottle at around 11:00 pm and then you sleep straight through to morning. Now that you’re older and are physically capable of going 11-12 hours without eating, Dad and I decided it’s time to give you a chance to just sleep the whole night. I’ve already cut your 11 pm bottle by 1/3 and you haven’t seemed to notice one bit, so I’m optimistic that you’ll be sleeping straight from 8 pm to 7 am within a few more weeks! We’ll see, right?

Look how much you’ve grown since August!

The week before Christmas, we found out that you got into the NASA daycare! This was pretty exciting for your dad and me, since you’ll now be on-site at the space center with us from now all the way until you go to kindergarten. (In 2017! Kind of crazy to think about it that way, but it’s true.)

They have video monitoring just like your first daycare, but the cameras are poorly positioned and most of the time when I check to see what you’re doing, I can’t find you. I think daycares have those video monitoring systems so that parents can make sure their baby is being well cared for, but I’ve never really worried that someone’s not doing a good job. I like the video just because it lets me get a glimpse of you here and there throughout the day!

When I don’t see you, it just means you’re off-screen somewhere, napping, getting your diaper changed, or maybe playing with a toy that’s just not in the camera’s field of view. Still, I miss those little glimpses. I didn’t expect to have to get used to you having some “independence” when you’re only 5 months old, but that’s kind of how it feels! I go to work, and you get to do your own thing all day.

Just promise me you won’t start talking about going off to college anytime soon, ok?

Love,
Mama