Natalie: Five Months
I can’t believe this baby is already almost 6 months old. I’m just going to get straight into this update!
Sleep stuff has not been as great the last few weeks honestly. Natalie has definitely grown out of her rock and play. She’s been trying to turn over in it because I suspect she would rather sleep on her tummy or side. So, it is time for the crib! In last month’s update, I talked about our stress with our housing situation. We’ve realized that leaving the crib in our loft is just not going to work. Although it stays pretty dark in there, it’s too noisy. Sean and I like to watch TV, talk, cook, and are often cleaning dishes after the girls are in bed so we don’t want to live on eggshells with noise. We are moving our dresser out of our bedroom and are going to put her crib in our room for now. I’m hoping this set-up will work for her during this transition and eventually to sleep training as I am assuming I will need to do at some point with her.
This girl has been doing so many new things physically. First, she is just about able to sit up on her own. Sometimes she can sit up for a few minutes unassisted before toppling over. I know this opens a whole new world for her in terms of being able to see things and play with her toys. She also really wants to spend time on the floor so she can roll to her tummy and just practice moving around. She actually has been getting a bit more frustrated if we just sit her on our laps for a while like we have always done, she wants more independence. She wants to crawl so badly and manages to pivot, scoot, and roll herself all over the place now as I often put her down in one place and and find her in a different place when I look back.
With her being on the floor so much now, I’ve been getting a little worried to make sure there are no toys with small pieces or food on the floor, but it’s really difficult with a toddler who, like many toddlers, is part wild animal. Keeping the floor and tables clear of small objects is going to be quite a challenge I fear! The worst part about her being on her stomach so much now though is spitting up. She’s always spit up a lot more than Madeline, but now with more pressure on her tummy all the time, she is spitting up a lot on herself, the carpet, floor, and it’s super gross! I’m not really sure there is anything we can do about it and I’m just hoping her sensitive little tummy will build up a tolerance for laying on the floor!
In terms of eating, Natalie is at the age now where she’d rather look around at what is going on around her than focus on eating. If Maddie is playing around her, she will always pull away from her bottle to look at her instead. She’s also been grabbing at our food and seemed kind of mad at me the other day when I wouldn’t let her have my oatmeal. So, I think I’m going to give her some baby oatmeal in the next week or so. She’s just a couple of weeks shy of 6 months now so it’s about that time anyway!
Oh, and in Maddie news, we turned her bed into a toddler bed a few weeks ago and she has been loving it, though she doesn’t seem to realize she can get out. The first nap she took, she got up a number of times, but since then, when we tuck her in, she stays in until we come get her. On the one hand, I have told her she can come to our room when she wakes up in the morning on her own, but on the other hand, we obviously don’t want her coming in at all hours of the night, especially with the baby trying to sleep in our room so we are kind of just not saying much to her about it.
