Five Months

I’ve gotten a lot of comments saying how helpful it is for me to post about development and milestones and I feel like I don’t do enough of that anymore. So here’s a five-month update.

Personalities

People always ask if the girls have different personalities. A month ago, I would’ve said they’re pretty similar. But over the past few weeks, they’ve really started to show differences.

Elise is our clown. She loves grinning and giggling and playing. She doesn’t cry much at all, doesn’t complain about a thing. I’ve woken up to find her in a blown-out diaper in the morning, but not a peep of protest. She just grins.

Althea, on the other hand, is more serious. I’d hardly call her a high-maintenance baby, but if someone’s going to cry, it’ll probably be her. If she wants attention, she’ll cough and whine. If she’s uncomfortable, she’ll let you know. Again, though, hardly a nuisance.

Neither of them cry more than maybe 20 minutes a day total. Seriously, they’re amazing babies. The other day, we were held up for over an hour and a half at the doctor’s office, during nap time, stuck in their stroller/car seats, and Althea fussed for probably 30 seconds total. I can’t complain.

Sleeping

We’re finally over the crescendo of torture after the vaccinations and the girls are back to waking just once a night for a feeding, sometime between 1:30 and 3 a.m., with the occasional two-feeding nights.

One quirk: After a few warm nights where we didn’t use their Halo sleep sacks to go to bed, we discovered that it affects Althea’s ability to go to sleep. She has an almost disturbing obsession with sucking and chewing on cloth, so having the sleep sack there to soothe herself makes a huge difference.

Both girls generally nap well. Neither of them are into pacifiers anymore.

(Also, can I just add that it’s kind of annoying how many people ask if they’re sleeping through the night? They’re infants, guys. There are two of them. Do you think they’re sleeping through the night?)

Schedule

Yep, we’re on a schedule and have had the same one since they were 12 weeks old. The girls determined their “schedule” and I just embraced it and make it routine. It’s roughly:

8 a.m. – wake, eat, play

9:30 a.m. – nap in swings

11:30 a.m. – wake, lunch, play

1:00 p.m. – nap in crib

3:00 p.m. – wake, eat, play

5/5:30 p.m. – cat nap in swings

6:00 p.m. – wake, eat, play

7:45 p.m. – bath if it’s bath night (every other night)

8:15/8:30 p.m. – eat, bedtime

Everything is give or take a half-hour. Sometimes the schedule gets thrown off and it’s totally okay. The girls “know” what time it is and will doze off wherever they are, even if it’s in the Baby Bjorn in the middle of a crowd of people.

Eating

I’m eating every 2 – 2.5 hours, usually a handful of candy or another freakin’ sandwich.

Oh, you mean the girls? They’re eating roughly every 3.5 – 4 hours during the daytime, a little more frequently in the evening and every 5 – 6 hours at night. They’re seriously distracted at this age and have been since four months. It seems there’s always something more interesting over their shoulder, even in a quiet room. A box in the corner? The movement of a dust mote? Venus aligning with Jupiter? Fascinating, let’s take a look!

The latest twist? Althea chomping on my nipple. Not all the time, but enough to remind me just how vulnerable a position I’m really in while nursing.

Looking ahead, I’m not excited about starting solids. Ugh. It all just seems like a massive, time-sucking hassle. Breastfeeding? Six minutes and the girls have Hoovered my boobs dry. Solids just seem so complicated and slow.

Playtime

I bought a couple of used Exersaucer-type toys from a neighbor. The girls seem to enjoy them well enough, but mostly they get frustrated because they can’t reach the toys to put them in their mouths.

Can't. Reach. Toy!

And speaking of which, everything goes in the mouth. Blankets, toys, fingers, shoulders, hair, earrings, necklaces, elbows. If it’s in their hands, it’s in their mouths next. They love grabbing their feet and sucking on their toes.

Incidentally, our house now resembles a daycare — one I’d never take my kids to.

Daycare? Nope, my living room.

Milestones

They’re both laughing more frequently these days, especially with repeated zerberts or other baby-friendly noise applied to the belly. And just because they can’t crawl doesn’t mean they’re not mobile. Both are rolling over like little burritos. We plop them down on a play mat or blanket and before we have a chance to blink, someone has rolled several times, causing Chris to yell, “Oh shit, baby on tile!”

They reach, bat and grab at toys, no problem.

My unofficial weighing method (weigh self without baby; hold baby and weigh self with baby; do the math) has them both at about 14 pounds.

The one thing they don’t do much is babble. Elise talks a little bit after eating. She’s even started letting out the occasional shriek of happiness. Althea will sometimes recite her vowels (“aahhhwwayyyweeeewooowhooooooooo”), but they’re quiet babies. I’ve read that being in a bilingual house will often delay speech. We speak Pig Latin and English, so . . .

I’m not super worried yet. I think there’s an inordinate amount of pressure put on babies/parents for kids to hit milestones on the exact day they’re supposed to reach them.