Yesterday marked 5 months with our sweet baby Ralph. I love that baby more than anything and I cannot believe that he is almost half a year old! Since it has been a month since I did my last baby Ralph update (you can read his 4 month update here), baby Ralph has changed so much (shocking I know). From laughing and smiling all the time to being chattier than ever, I cannot get enough.
Full disclosure, I was pretty nervous going into month 5 due to the overwhelming amount of messages wishing me ‘good luck’ with the 4 month sleep regression. I was afraid that we would have a non stop screaming baby and our house would never sleep again. I feel like every night when baby Ralph goes to sleep we just wondered if the ‘regression’ would happen. Maybe the dreaded 4 month sleep regression has not hit us yet OR keeping Ralph on a schedule has helped him (you can read about his schedule here).
Some changes that I have noticed with Ralph over the last month are bedtime. Although he still sleeps through the night, for about 2 weeks we were having the HARDEST time getting him to take his 7 pm bottle. Some nights it would even take an hour and 15 minutes to get enough ounces in him, so that he would sleep soundly. An adjustment that we made last week to really help with speeding up his 7 pm feed is cutting his 4 pm ounces to only 4. Prior to that we would just offer him up to 7 ounces and most days he would take 5-7. which now I realize why his 7 pm feeding was so difficult…because he was full. Another really weird thing Ralph does is 35-45 minutes after he is ‘down for the night’, he always wakes up and does this yell thing. Not a cry, more like ‘ah..pause….AH…pause…’ because he has ONE last burp. One of us just runs up to his room, sits him up in his crib and gets out that last burp. We have been giving him gas drops which have helped (or he just thinks its dessert because the kid loves grape flavor) but that has been an interesting change the last month.
Another big change that has happened over he last month is baby Ralph loves to grab everything. Brushes, my hair, the puppy brothers, really anything he can wrap his tiny little fingers around. He also discovered his hands (constant staring contest with them) and his feet. Along with now wearing a size 3 diaper, my 5 month old is ALMOST in 6 month old clothing! It’s been so fun dressing him in little outfits that I have gotten him along the way.
I have said from the beginning that ‘less is more’ when it comes to baby products/toys, so we are only buying things on a ‘need’ basis. A couple of weeks ago, every time we would hold Ralph or stand him up all he would do was bend his knees. Like constantly. We got him this jumper that we put in door frames around our house and it is AMAZING how much he loves it. Sometimes during his morning feedings he gets sad because I know he just wants to skip his meal and jump since he hasn’t gotten to ‘play’ since the night before. As much as baby Ralph loves to jump, he has also gotten really good at lounging. It’s so funny because on a lazy Sunday, I can literally put him in the middle of our bed during his ‘up time’ and he just likes to ‘lounge’ and ‘chat’ oh and of course occasionally grab his hands and feet.
A few weeks ago we could finally feel the little bumps on his bottom gums, so between the drooling and chewing on all the burp clothes, I feel like his little teeth will come through soon. Ralph is still only on just formula but I am sure we will introduce a few foods sooner than later.
As nervous as I was about month 4-5, no complaints whatsoever. I’ve said this over and over again but Ralph really is an easy baby, I 100% credit that to the schedule that we have him on…Yes, our family gets annoyed with how much we stick to the schedule but I would much rather have a sweet, content baby than go to a ‘later’ dinner when we bring the baby or make him over tired because let’s be honest, we all know who is the one who has to deal with it when there are meltdowns that can so easily be prevented (me, duh). I KNOW we are going to have more than a few bumps in the road but for now, I am just enjoying my sweet, calm, little baby boy.
previous baby ralph updates: one month, two months, three months, four months
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