Carter: 5 months

Carter is 5 months old! He's getting so big... I look back at pictures from November and December and can hardly believe that this is the same baby. I couldn't post a 5-month picture, because at this point Carter is so determined to eat the month sticker that it's nearly impossible. I figure I'll post the updates now, and include a picture later.

This month has been amazing. We gave up nursing right after the 4 month mark after having issues with it consistently for a few weeks. I still pump, so Carter now gets five bottles of breast milk and one bottle of formula a day. I agonized, cried, and stressed over this decision for a long time, but it was a good one. A very good one. Carter is a different baby -- he's happy! Reliably happy for long periods of time, and because of this I'm a happy mommy. Happier than I ever was thought I could be, as a matter of fact, and relieved to finally be enjoying my son full time as compared to enjoying him part time, and spending the other part of my time listening to him cry and feeling completely incompetent. The past month has been a huge sigh of relief.

So even though Carter is 5 months today, he just had his 4 month appointment with Dr. Rosser on Monday. He weighed 15 lbs 11oz (47th percentile), measured 26 inches long (78th) and his head measured 44 1/4 cm (83rd). She was impressed with his strength (so are we, he's a hulk) and said that in a lot of ways, he's ahead of the curve in terms of development. He got two booster shots and an oral vaccine. Brian said that right after the doctor warned him that most babies do not like the oral vaccine, Carter literally reached up, grabbed the little container it comes in, and squeezed it into his mouth. Seriously, you could put almost any liquid in a bottle or other container, and he'd drink it.

Dr. Rosser also cleared us to introduce oatmeal to Carter, though we'll likely start after we get back from next week's wedding in Kentucky. We're not in a hurry to introduce solids, and she said we could wait as long as 6 months before doing so. Other good news is that we now have pediatrician approval to continue swaddling... I'm prepared to keep swaddling until high school if it means he'll continue to sleep as well as he has been. We haven't had a middle-of-the-night wake-up since he was two months old. He consistently wakes up between 5-6, which is frustrating, but I'll take that over night wakings any day.

Likes:

• Toys - he's finally taking an interest in grasping everything, and it all promptly goes into his mouth.
• Bathtime - he loves it again! Yay!
• Being pulled up by his arms. My grandma would like to kill me when I do it, but the kid LOVES it and laughs each and every times.
• His hands - yesterday he had them crammed so far in his mouth he was gagging himself. Hands are very yummy, I guess.

Dislikes:

• Tummy time -- this is the only time he'll roll, solely to stop being on his belly.
• Burping. Just par for the course at this point, he still screams.
• Really, dislikes are few at this point. Like I said, amazing month.
  

Mommy knowledge of the month:

• What's good for the rest of the world may not be what's good for you and your particular child. Compromise is a good thing, even if it means compromising with yourself.