5 Months Old

Mia turned 5 months old last Saturday. I can't believe how quickly it's gone by. She's so much fun and I feel like I can't get enough of her. I love hearing her laugh and I can't imagine a sweeter feeling than when she smiles at me. She definitely knows Mike and I are special people to her and she loves watching us to see where we are and what we're doing. She loves to talk to us and my favorite conversations with her are in the car. Sometimes I give her a commentary on what we're doing or where we're going. Other times I speak "Mia" and mimic the sounds she makes.

Mia still loves doing anything that involves using her legs. She still likes to kick the rattles when she's on her mat, but now she also loves to jump in her bouncy activity center. Of course when she tires of those things she uses her legs to propel her feet straight into her mouth, another favorite pastime. She also likes to put her fingers, fists, teething rings, toys, bibs, blankets, my fingers, my hair - basically anything she can get her hands on - into her mouth. She's a drooler these days also.

Mia is now sleeping on her belly, unswaddled. She sleeps just as soundly that way as she did when swaddled, so we're happy. We use the angel monitor for peace of mind, but we try to remind ourselves that we slept on our bellies and we are (reasonably) okay! The only difficulty I've run into is when she's not completely tired and I put her down. She likes to roll around and usually ends up rolling onto her back. I have yet to witness her rolling from her back to her stomach, so she stays on her back, playing and kicking and pulling her paci out of her mouth. So we end up making several trips to turn her back over and get that paci back in her mouth.

Mia has now eaten rice cereal, green beans, squash, carrots and sweet potatoes. The carrots are her favorite so far. She is one messy eater, and I've quickly learned that even the toughest stain removers aren't so great on orange stains.

Mike and I have been working on helping Mia learn to do some things herself. We're trying to get her to hold her bottles more often. I purchased some cups for babies her age with progressive nipples that graduate to more of a sippy cup type. We're making her work a little to get that paci back in her mouth when she pulls it out and to work her way over to toys she wants when she's playing on the floor. She definitely has a temper and gets very mad when she can't get that toy or paci as quickly as she'd like. But at this age her anger just makes us laugh. It's definitely much more important for her to learn to problem solve on her own.

Tonight I worked on sitting with Mia. She can sit like a tripod, with her hands in front of her to support her. I put her between my legs with her back to me. I scattered blocks around her to encourage her to reach forward and to the sides, using her back muscles to come back to the sitting position. My legs were also there to keep her from falling too far to either side. She did really well. Later, when she was in her bathtub, I put her toy out in front of her. She repeatedly pulled herself up to sitting from a reclined position so she could get her toy.

Some other things of note are that Mia loves her book "Pat the Bunny", she has taken an interest in the dogs and likes to feel them, and she likes to put her hands on our faces. My favorite is when she puts both hands on either side of my face and she leans in to me so that our foreheads are touching. Oh...that girl has completely stolen my heart.

Also thought I would mention that a doctor asked me yesterday when I was expecting. I said five months ago and made some jokes about the weight not coming off as quickly as I'd like, blah, blah, blah. Then I went and cried my eyes out. I know I don't look as bad as that comment made me feel, but I will absolutely admit that my perceptions of how women should look five months after having a baby were very different from the reality I face every day. I really didn't have a clue how hard it is to lose the weight, how much my body would change, how puffy and swollen my c-section area would still be, how sponge-like my stomach would still feel even though I've managed to tighten the muscles underneath, and how my appetite wouldn't automatically be curbed just because I'm no longer pregnant. After working all day and then trying to play, feed, bathe and put Mia to bed, then clean and do laundry, occasionally go to the gym, and spend time with Mike once he gets home from the store, it's much easier to go for quick and easy food instead of healthy. So getting my pre-baby body back is proving to be quite a challenge. The best thing that has come from me sharing that story has been hearing several other people say the same thing happened to them. It lets me know that it's okay to be where I am now, and I wanted to put this on here so other new moms or future moms won't beat themselves up like I have.