Baby B

Dear Sylvie (at 5 months)

November 5, 2009 at 12:35 am

My dear, sweet Sylvia Grace,

This has officially been the fastest month of your life to date! I swear you were just turning 4 months. How can this be? You’re five months old? As in, in just one more month you’ll be half a year old?! Eating solid food?! *sigh*

This month you had several family visitors: Ilene, Grandma Linda, Aunt Kelly and cousin Timmy. People who missed you so much they drove all the way from New York just to spend 24 hours with you. You also did a lot of seasonal activities (we’re big fans of fall around here), and you helped me celebrate my birthday. It was my best birthday to date because you were there with me. And, of course, you continued growing and changing and being your delightful little elf self. Here are some of the highlights from your October:

You have become incredibly active and have been working hard to discover new ways to move your body. You are no longer content to be an inert lump chewing on a toy, and even batting and kicking the toys on your baby gym is beginning to wear thin.  One of your new favorite moves is slamming your feet down on the ground repeatedly to create loud bangs. A good week or so after you discovered that, you determined that those same feet could actually help you *move.* So, now you’re also scootching backward across the floor on your back. You actually cover a lot of terrain this way and are surprisingly fast. You do it in your crib, too, so that when we check on you we sometimes find you wedged into the corner. Oh, and you’ve managed to rub completely clean that burgeoning bald spot on the back of your head. Yeah, that’s a really good look – a bald spot atop a mullet. Just keeping up your tradition of silly baby hair, I guess.

In addition to your scootching, you’re finally rolling over from your belly to your back! Well, technically you did this after your 5 month birthday (you started it yesterday, 11/3), but this letter is a few days late and it’s too exciting not to include. I was getting a little impatient waiting for it (I’m sorry), because I knew you were strong enough, but you just needed to work it out in your own due time. You had to figure out the whole “tuck and roll” concept, and you also had to figure out how to finagle that long body of yours. Now you roll whenever you get bored of being on your tummy, and you always look so proud of yourself and excited to check out the new scenery.

Your hands are an endless source of amusement for you this month. You are grabbing for absolutely everything, and your latest favorite item to grab is your daddy’s glasses. You can whip them off of his face in one second flat and you laugh as you do. I have no idea why he encourages you to do this, and he will probably learn the hard way. You love staring at your hands as you slowly move them this way and that – I think you just finally realized that they are, indeed, attached to you. I can also tell that you are working to figure out the distance between your hand and the objects of your desire. You often use one hand to help the other along, which looks particularly funny when you are bringing them to your mouth. It looks as though you’re punching yourself in the face with a handshake. Also, one of our new games is to play “Skill Crane,” in which I dangle you in front of your toy container and wait while you get your paws wrapped around your toy of choice before pulling you back up. Skill Crane was my favorite arcade game as a kid, and I think I have more fun playing our version than even you do.

We packed up the co-sleeper this past weekend. There’s just no need for it. With the exception of a couple of blips on the sleep radar (including one so far tonight), you continue to be Sleeping Beauty (your initials are SB, after all!). If you do wake up at an early hour, I simply pull you into bed with me and snuggle with you in a half-sleep state. It’s a wonderful feeling to cuddle with you and your daddy and the cat…all one big, happy family smushed together in our cozy bed. We’re going to go get some bed rails now, so that we can feel comfortable continuing these snuggle-fests as you get more adept at rolling. Oh, and speaking of sleep, you’ve started extending some of your naps! You used to consistently do 30 minutes on the dot, which left me little time to get anything done during the day. Well, all of a sudden, you’re doing 45, 60, and even 90-minute naps! Not every nap, but generally at least once a day now. Way to sleep, baby girl!

You are quite a giggler these days. We can now simply say, “ridiculous” to you, and you will start laughing. You recognize and think it’s hilarious when I sing the melody of the songs from your Kick and Play or your car mirror.  You have also become ticklish and you laugh with anticipation when we play the “Uh-oh…oh no!” game that culminates in crazy belly tickles. You still laugh at peek-a-boo, but it’s a weak laugh, almost as though you’re humoring me as I play these “baby games” with you. You much prefer the “dancing around the house” song or funny faces and silly voices these days.

Your body is definitely getting ready for solid foods. First of all, you have stopped pooping every day. (Why do moms always have to talk about their babies’ poops? I don’t know, but we do.) Your longest stretch to date has been three days with no diaper action, and you’re regularly skipping every other day. I’ve read plenty of information online that says that it’s totally normal and that you’ve just become really adept at absorbing all of my milk’s nutrients, but I don’t know. It makes me think you’re not getting enough or that something’s changing in your digestive system. Also, you’re likely just days away from sprouting that first tooth. I was so sure you were going to get teeth early way back when you were a drooly 2 month-old, but nothing. Now there is definitely a sharpness to your lower gums, and you simply cannot gnaw on things enough. I’m excited to see your jack-o’-lantern smile! Oh, and you’re also obsessed with watching us eat. You stare intently as the food goes from plate to fork to mouth, and you look perplexed and excited all at the same time. And finally, you have developed quite a bit of independence with feeding yourself. You hold your own bottle with your hands (and sometimes even your feet). You will now pull down my shirt if I’m not giving you milk right when you want it. You’re a funny little thing and it’s going to be so cool and amazing to watch you try solids for the first time in this upcoming month.

All right, so now that you’ve accomplished the fastest month of your life, can you please slow down? I love all of these new milestones and skills, but it’s so hard to keep up. Just today, I was reminiscing about you as a floppy, smaller-than-the-cat newborn as I hoisted your long and steady body up onto my hip. I know I need to get used to you as an ever-evolving being, and I am excited about all of your growth and changes, yet I seriously think I’m going to be at your high school graduation saying, “but you were just born!”  So, slow it down just a bit for your old mama, K?

Naw, I’m just kidding. Keep doing what you’re doing. I love you, Baby B.  You are always in my thoughts, and ever in my heart. I look forward to seeing where November takes us.

Zerberts, raspberries, and drool-soaked kisses,

Mama

By phillygil | Posted in Dear Sylvie