Ethan is 5 months old

Go Canada Go!!

Our big boy is 5 months old today! He is definitely not an infant anymore. I don't know when that transition came about, but looking back at things, it feels like one day he's an infant and the next, he's a little boy.

Activity: We've definitely had to have him play by himself at times and luckily he's pretty happy in his excersaucer. With Maddy, it never occurred to us to put her in the excersaucer, but it's been pure necessity this time around. Other activities he enjoys include knawing on anything he can get into his mouth, laying under the gymini, looking in the mirror and watching Maddy as she runs around the room. Recently we've put him in the highchair at mealtimes and he really likes to be up with the rest of the family. He also looks interested in what we're eating, so I'm sure by 6 months he'll be ready for solids.

Sleep: Well in this area we have some good news and not so good news. The good news is that Ethan seems to be on a pretty good daytime schedule. He can spend about 2hrs between naps and on good days he'll take 2 long naps and one short cat nap in the evening. For the most part, if I get the timing right, he'll go down awake and go off to dreamland on his own. At times he'll fuss like crazy, but as soon as he feels the binkie on his cheek, it's like he realizes that he's exhausted and go to sleep right away. He seems to take the binkie well but the real test will come when we stop using the swaddle and he uses the binkie on his own. The not so good news is that we still can't seem to get him to sleep at night. Some days he'll go to bed without too much fuss, others we have to rock him to sleep, but EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. he'll wake after 30 minutes crying. No amount of binkie rubbing or rocking will get him down again. So up he gets. The only problem is that he is not a happy camper when he gets up. Extremely fussy until 10pm when we finally just feed him to sleep. Some nights he's so fussy that we try and feed him to sleep earlier, and then he'll just feed, but wake as soon as we take him off. Then we'll have to feed him to sleep again at ten. By the time he's down, around 10:45, we're both exhausted. Not that much of a stretch for me, but a real change for Josh. He usually stays up until 12am (well not anymore). So until we figure out what it is that makes him wake up after 30 minutes, we'll have to trudge on through. I'm hoping that solids and some sleep training will help a little later on.

Pottying: HA HA HA HA!! No one has time for pottying around here!!!

Feeding: Ethan eats every four hours during the day and some nights will wake once to feed. Other nights, he'll get up maybe twice. Again, I'm looking forward to solids soon, I think he'll love it. On another note, we're getting into the really great stage of breastfeeding. No more huge puke ups, very little fussing on the boob and you gotta love the gazing up at you while he's on as if to say "thanks mom". I've been trying hard to not let him take his naps while nursing, so I'm always tickling and calling out to him. Now Maddy likes to get in on the action too. You'll often hear her say, "Ethan, Ethan NO SLEEPING ON THE BOOB BOOB!" So cute.

Zebra keeps him company during tummy time