Theo :: Five Months

No doctor appointment this month so no weight/length info. 

Development:

--Theo hasn't had had any teeth come through yet, but he is drooling and chewing on his hands like crazy. Everything goes into his mouth and we've had to remind Noelle a few times to keep small toys away from him. Even with all of the teething rings and toys he has, there is apparently nothing better than his hands or someone's fingers. Sometimes he even prefers his hand to the pacifier when it comes to sucking for soothing. 

                         

--Just a few days after he turned five months he started pushing up all the way on his arms. He loves to be on his tummy and I definitely think he'll be a crawler. (Noelle never really crawled. She scooted around for a few weeks and then decided she wanted to start walking!)

--Baby boy can sit in an exaggerated tripod position but really doesn't like it. He'll get very fussy, very quickly. 

--Theo has rolled over a few more times, but isn't really interested in doing more than that. He does love to be on his side though and will half roll over when he's playing in the floor. 

Firsts:

--First Halloween: I'm not a big costume person and think traditional baby costumes are kind of silly and a waste of money. Theo went as a Packer because he has a personalized jersey and Noelle had a little football! Theo got to wear his costume a few times and I know we'll have more fun with it next year!

--First snowfall: boo, no picture 

--First big cold hit the week of 11/11. The whole house was hit with the sniffles except for me. Thankfully everyone got over it pretty quickly. 

--First time in the Jumparoo. Really digs the frog toy. 

--The biggest thing was trying real food for the first time. After a lot of reading and research on my part, we decided to skip rice cereal. I'm not entirely comfortable with baby-led weaning so we started with purees. Theo's first purée was butternut squash that we made ourselves. He actually really liked it and we're slowly going to give him more. For some reason we're just not in a hurry to give solids a go, so we'll just go with the flow and see what happens!

                               

Our freezer is stocked with butternut squash, acorn squash and peas from our garden. We'd like to make the majority of Theo's purees and have really enjoyed it so far. It's just so easy!

Breastfeeding is going very well! We are still staring down supplementation in the near future because the kid still eats more when he's taking milk from a bottle. 

For my own sanity I have accepted this and moved on. He'll still receive breast milk 99% of the time and that number is ok by me. I just cannot dwell on it because the guilt starts to creep in. I have enough mom guilt in my life and I don't need to add any more. 

One thing I still have to figure out is how to work the logistics of solids and nursing. I hate pumping - both the actual pumping and all of the parts to clean, so we'll see what works best in terms of getting him a meal of milk and solids. If it works out best to pump and give him a bottle with his food, then I guess it's what I'll do, but I want to avoid that if I can. 

Gotta do what we can to keep these things growing! Cankles anyone??

                                  

Other things I want to remember from this month:

--Found a lovie - a little giraffe/blanket combo that he likes to snuggle with at nap time. 

--Celebrated Daddy's birthday on 11/12. Went out to Bel Air Cantina with my parents. He slept most of the time, but really liked taking everything in while he was awake.

--Theo discovered his tongue halfway through this month and loves to stick his tongue out all the time!

                                 

Health-related:

--Theo's had to have appointments with two different specialists this months - an OT for possible torticollis and a urologist. I won't say why he needs to see the urologist to save future teenager Theo any embarrassment! Let's just say there's something minor and fixable that we eventually need to take care of :) He will need surgery, but for now we just met for a consultation and will revisit in 6 months. 

The OT confirmed that Theo has a minor case of torticollis and also a tightening of the muscles in the back of his neck that cause him to always look more up than straight ahead. It looks like he's always straining his head back. I'm sure there's an official, technical term for this, but for now you get my description :)

You can really see the torticollis tilt in this picture:

                                 

Theo will have PT appointments once a week and we have exercises to do at home. Hopefully we can get everything fixed quickly! Those copays every time are no joke! 

--This one is kind of weird, but Theo loves to try to eat our elbows when we're changing his diaper. If you think about how you stand over the changing table, there are times when your arm is right over his face. He takes this opportunity to grab your arm and try to mow on our forearms and elbows! Every time! He just smiles and giggles when you laugh and tell him to stop!

                                    

Theo is just a happy kid! Anytime I have to describe him, I always say he's our happy, smiley little guy! Just to keep things real though, the below picture happened one night when Bryan was out running errands - both kids going at the same time! So let's say he's a happy guy 95% of the time!

                                       

Noelle continues to be so in love with her little brother. She is such a mommy and reminds me a lot of myself and my little brother (who is also 4 years younger than me). 

                                       

                                       

I can't believe we're fast approaching the 6 month mark! I always want my babies to stay babies. But I do love watching them grow and develop!