Today our Tera Evelynne turned five months old! It seems so crazy that she is already five months…I feel like she was JUST born. But, then again….I can hardly remember our lives without her.
Tera’s fourth month was pretty much the craziest month ever, so I’m hoping month five will be the magical month where things really start getting into a routine!
Tera is an absolute joy, and people are just drawn to her. I know, I know…everyone is drawn to a baby. But seriously, how can you resist??
So as we go into month five, here are her stats:
Weight/Length: At Tera’s 4 month check-up, she was 12 pds 10 oz and 24.4 inches long. We were rocking the charts for the first couple months of her life, but now she has fallen into the lower end of the spectrum. But no one is really surprised about that, right? Haha. Seriously, the most common comment I get is, “She is so TINY!”
She might be tiny but I’m still growing muscles from carrying her around all day!
Eating: Tera is in the 25 percentile for weight, so the pediatrician was not too concerned about supplementing with anything yet. She is still on a diet of only breastmilk! Momma’s best, as my mother-in-law calls it. I think that soon we will moving onto baby foods!
I’m actually looking into doing baby led weaning, which skips over the processed, jarred baby food and moves straight into mushy or soft ‘adult’ food, such as steamed/cooked veggies and soft fruits. I’m still doing my research on that, though. Does anyone have any helpful books or articles, or advice from experience?
Sleeping: I think God gave Theo and I a perfect baby. But then He decided that was unfair to all the other parents around, and he gave Tera a deficit. Sleeping.
I kid, I kid. I know God doesn’t work like that (I hope you weren’t offended by that joke).
Tera slept through the night from the first week until month 3. And then she stopped. For the last two months, she has been waking up every 2-3 hours during the night. It’s exhausting. On the heels of not sleeping through the night, she also started to take horrible day time naps, leaving me not only desperate for sleep, but also unable to do anything throughout the day. (And yes, I have read Baby Wise, and I’m doing everything according to what they say).
Who me? Sleep? Nawwww, I’m too cute for that!
Thankfully, over the past week she has corrected some of that behavior, and has started sleeping much better both during nap times and at night! I’m holding my breath here hoping it’s not just a phase, but that it’s here to stay!
Clothing/Diapers: We took a long break from cloth diapers and I realized how much money we could be spending on disposables! Phew! A pack a week, at the least!
We are back to cloth and she is rocking them!
She is still in 3-6 month clothes, and will probably be for a while. Today I was going through pictures from a few months ago, and I noticed that Tera is losing some of her chub. Not that she was that chubby before, but now she is looking leaner, if you know what I mean. I think we will be in clothing sizes for longer than 3 months from now on!
Personality: This girl. She is a social butterfly, the life of the party. She always wants to be interacting with someone. She really doesn’t care who it is (as long as it’s not the pediatrician, she really didn’t like her!), she just smiles and coos at whoever will look her way (which happens to be EVERYBODY, btw).
We were at a wedding this past weekend, and she absolutely refused to go to sleep. As long as their are people near her, or something remotely social happening, she wants to be awake and involved.
Tera is both laid-back and dramatic. She freaks out over the smallest things, and has the most dramatic reactions to things. For example, my cousin’s son dropped a book and it kinda topple onto her head. It didn’t fall ON her head, and it wasn’t even a very heavy book. Well, it startled her (and maybe hurt a little), and she let out a wail like she was being tortured. Of course, my cousin reprimanded her son, who really didn’t do ANYTHING. Oh, Tera-girl.
Tera is also super laid back. We have done so much traveling, so much schedule-changing, so many new people and new places, and yet none of that seems to have bothered her (except for maybe the sleeping). I love that about her!
Loves:
- Standing
- Daddy
- Parties!
- Car Rides
- Bath Time
- Anything that crinkles (wrapping paper, the wipes, a bag of Doritos)
- Watching other (older) kids
- Moose (she loves to talk to him, watch him walk around, and grab his paws/fur/tail)
Dislikes:
- Being alone
- Sleeping
- After-bath time
New Developments:
- Talking (loud and clear!)
- Rolling over (tummy to back and back to tummy)
- Allllmost siting up
- Laughing (when her cousins were here, they were chasing each other around and around the coffee table. Tera was sitting on my lap, laughing HYSTERICALLY at them running around. It was adorable/hilarious/fuel for their already crazy-boy-hyper fire haha!)
- Playing with toys (this is totally new, and so much fun!) In this pictures below, she is going for the camera!
Daddy and Mommy:
Phew, what a month it has been for us! We have moved, traveled to Michigan, and Theo was best man in a wedding. All of these things have most certainly taken a toll on our couple time and our family time, so we are glad to be back at home settling into the routine of things.
Happy 5 months, Tera! We love you!