5 months and he refuses to stop growing

My baby boy turned 5 months on Friday. He is a very dramatic baby. He's over-joyed one moment and the world is ending seconds later. Over the past few weeks his coos have become these hilarious grunty noises and squeals. I'm pretty sure the grunts are his attempts to communicate with the puppies. There's a 50/50 chance he thinks he's one of them rather than one of us. Yesterday he picked up a new noise--it's like a coo but he does it with his lips pursed and closed. Video of that to come.

He's totally over laying down and sitting. He rolls and twists when you lay him down and arches his back and demands to stand if you try to get him to sit. He will occasionally get up on all fours and then get really frustrated and cry when he fails to move forward.

I wouldn't update you on his pooping habits except that it only happens once every 8 days. We were quite worried about it at first, but WebMD assures us it's okay. It does make diaper laundry easier.

He and Kenny still greet me when I get off the train each day. Once he figures out I am there he cries for me--probably for my boobs really, but they are attached to me. Counts.

He is very busy taking in his world. He will cry if he's not facing outward in the Bjorn. He has no use for the nursing cover and has taken to moving it out of his way lately. He can be entertained for quite some time watching the puppies. He has become very skilled at playing in his Baby Einstein exercauser thingy. He always hits the cow button 3 times to get to Old MacDonald (you have to skip past it saying cow and vaca).

He's grown increasingly squeezable. I can't believe another month has already gone by.

Milo, meet Eli

Megan and her Milo and Eli and I headed to DC last weekend for Molly's bachelorette party.

Technically this wasn't Milo and Eli's first meeting. They met way back when they were only 6 and 10ish weeks. Now that they are mature 3 and 4 month olds, they had a lot more to chat about.

Obsession

I spend the majority of my days working on feeding Eli. If I'm home, he spends about 50% of the time attached to my boob. I pump once before work, 4 times at work, and one time after work. I'm told some women are able to just pump twice a day. Lies I say. Lies.

Getting milk into this baby has become the central preoccupation of my life. He's gone on eating rampages a few times and annihilated the back up freezer stockpile I made before going back to work. We're now living on the edge with basically only the previous day's milk to rely on.

This is my Playtex pump. I've grown skeptical of its effectiveness. I came home early from work last week when I suspected it had totally crapped out and didn't think I was going to be able to pump enough for the next day.

This is what I affectionately refer to as my lactation room. There is one functioning outlet in this room, and it is on the opposite side of the room from the chair. The Playtex pump worked with an extension cord I brought in so that I could sit in that chair. The hospital-grade relic from the 80s I rented does not so I'm back to sitting on the floor with my back to the door.

The rental pump came in this awesome gym bag.

I've also taken to buying any herbal supplement people tell me will help my supply. When I was in the store renting the pump the sales lady sold me magic beans. Apparently Malunggay is all the rage and is totally helping all women. It also costs one million dollars, but of course it does because it works and is totally worth one million dollars. In front of the bottles, behold a sampling of the pills I take in one day. This is not including the Fenugreek pictured on the right. It made me and Eli reek of maple syrup and also messed up our tummies so I'm not taking that one anymore.

I'm not a competitive person, but I can be a very determined person. I don't train for races like a lot of my friends do--but I am going to do everything I can to make sure this baby's bottle continues to have the good stuff in it.

My Big Boy

The monkey is 4 months old today and has gotten huge! He's practically a boy. We're guessing that today he weighs 13 pounds even, making him twice his birth weight.

While he's still a huge fan of the ceiling vents, he's broadened his horizons and formed a strong friendship with the cord attached to the monitor. That cord is within reach of his changing table (which continues to be his favorite place in the world) and he likes to pretend it's a lasso. He spends a lot of his time naked and the vast majority of his sleeping time swaddled. His head almost always leaves a sweat spot behind. He's taken an interest in toys and has become ridiculously grabby. I've got little claw marks all over me from where a baby thought it'd be an awesome idea to go for a handful of my skin. If my hair comes near his hand, he pulls it with all of his might. When not grabbing things he likes to keep those hands in his mouth--both at the same time if possible. Oh, and they definitely go in there immediately after either puppy succeeds in licking them--because of course. At about 5 or 6 every morning he likes to scream/sing. It's a joyous noise that sounds a lot like a scream. He's got a smile that melts hearts. Is ridiculously charming and can't even talk yet.

Handle with Care

This is a picture of Amy, me, and Megan taking a shot of Mama Juana, a liquor from the Dominican Republic rumored to boost fertility. A year after this was taken, Amy and Megan were pregnant and I had just given birth. Just sayin...

Over-Sharing

What were you doing at 3:30 this morning? I know what I was doing. I was sitting up in bed clapping and offering words of encouragement as my baby boy made his first real poop in 5 days.

And then I poked his father and told him he needed to be changed. His father argued with me making the same argument he always makes at night and apologizes for the next day, "you're already up." I slept for some precious minutes and then I am not really sure I slept again as the little monkey was up screaming about every 30 minutes after that.

Maybe the curry I ate last night was a poor choice after all.

Developments

My baby has taken to occasionally sleeping in his crib all by himself. Previously all naps occurred on one of us, in the Bjorn, or sometimes swaddled on the couch. We had a friend over for dinner Saturday night. I swaddled him and nursed him down. He stayed asleep in his room for five hours. Kenny and I both had hands for 5 hours, and it was bizarre. We were serving corn on the cob and I was sure one of us was going to have to cut it off the cob for the other. I only checked on him about 10 times. Yes, we have a monitor. No, I do not trust it. Yes, I stand there and watch him until I can detect his chest rising and falling and I am sure he is still breathing.

Further calling into question Eli’s maternity, he is totally a morning person. He wakes up around 6:00 and begins his calisthenics. He kinds of looks like he’s marching or cheerleading—but laying down. He spends a good 10 minutes smiling and flirting with the air vents in the ceiling as they are hilarious. Eventually he will decide it is time to go walk his puppies and will pitch a fit until Kenny shows up with the Bjorn and leashes.

I’m in no way biased, but I am pretty sure my baby is way advanced. He’s got the neck strength of a wrestler. He has been successfully flipping over for a few weeks now. He can do front to back and back to front. When he does back to front he can’t quite drag one of his arms out of the way so he gets pretty upset about that. He can also stand with a little bit of support. I credit the months of preparatory kicking he did in the womb. Those legs came out strong and he hasn’t stopped kicking or flailing since.