5+ Months

Things are really happening over here with the Gregrows! Ellie is just growing and learning so many new skills, we can't even keep up. Recently she has become able to hold her own bottle, roll all over the place, sit unassisted for about 30 seconds and is frequently caught holding the "plank" position, heehee.



Yep, she is already all over the place and she isn't even crawling yet. I can't leave the room anymore for a second, because she'll be clear across the room from where I left her. I felt a little bad the other day because I laid her on the ground in the living room and went in the kitchen for a minute, and next thing you know I hear a "Thud!" and the crying began... poor lil thing rammed her head into the TV stand. So, we just don't let her roll around without supervision anymore. In addition to that, she is rolling all over her crib at bedtime. She has become quite fond of sleeping on her tummy, and it appears on the video monitor that she is face-down in the sheets, which freaks me out, so I have to go in a check on her multiple times a night.



We started to give her solid foods last Sunday. I started out with Sweet potatoes, and she really liked them on Sunday, then had a fit when I gave them to her Monday and really didn't appear to love them or hate them by Tuesday. On Wednesday I gave her avocado, and she was not a fan. If I had a third hand I would have taken a picture, her little nose crinkled up and she just looked disgusted. We did get some shots of her eating the sweet potatoes though. I bought some organic green beans and organic bananas that I plan to try this coming week. As I said in my previous post, I wanted to try Baby-Led Weaning, which involves giving the baby table food only and surpassing purees. Well, it is recommended that you don't start Baby Led Weaning until 6 months, so I just started with purees for fun. I would rather follow the Baby Led weaning when she turns 6 months, because I think it helps with not only her independence, but it helps with her motor skills and coordination, and it really just looks like more fun for the babies. If you want to know what I am talking about, look it up on You Tube, it's pretty cool.



Ellie is sleeping at night for the most part and only waking up once. She is not hungry when she wakes up, but we have both tried to soothe her back to sleep with patting her bottom, rocking and shh-ing, and it takes 40+ minutes, so I usually end up feeding her because that helps her fall back to sleep the easiest. We have many friends that have been encouraging us to try to let her Cry-It-Out, but I haven't had the patience, the heart or the drive to do that just yet. I think Paul can handle the crying better than me. A couple weeks ago she was up all night long on and off and he just put his headphones in and he was out. I can't do that. Not yet anyway. I think that at 5 months, waking only once a night (which is just an average, sometimes it's more, sometimes she sleeps thru the night) is not so bad, I know a few parents who have it so much worse.



Earlier this week I could have swore that Ellie reached for me. I held my hands out and then she reached her hands up towards me. It hasn't happened again though, so I'm not sure if it was just a fluke or if she has that skill down yet, but, it did make my day. :)

Well that's about it for now. We are just happy, enjoying our little family. I'll write more again soon.....