5 Months!

I am sure I have said this with all three kids, but where is the time going?
eating,

We are starting to see your personality, and it's awesome. You love to sit at the table while James and Catherine are eating and laugh and laugh and laugh with them. They love making you laugh! And you have finally started to really laugh. It seems like that is our entire goal when sitting around the dinner table at night.

I began the mission a few weeks ago to get you out of our room. Honestly, I do not know how people who co-sleep do it. I want my bed, and I don't want anyone but my husband in it (more on that in a bit). At first, we were going to transition Catherine out of her crib and into the lower bunk in James' room. That backfired like you wouldn't believe. Then we took Catherine's crib into James' room and shoved it into a corner. It backfired, but in the complete opposite way from the night before. Instead of refusing to go to sleep and screwing around with the James the whole night, like on night number 1, you screamed, and screamed and screamed. The third night, we aborted mission. I'm sure the nay-sayers out there would say we didn't do it long enough, but Eric and I know our family dynamic, and that arrangement wasn't going to work, no matter how much we tried. Catherine is a creature of habit, and taking her out of her habitat was a big mistake.

Don't get me wrong, you sleeping in our room, in a pack-and-play (because, you know, I sold all my baby stuff, including an extra crib we had), was not a huge deal. In fact, in our 14x10 foot room, we have a dresser, a nightstand, a king-size bed, and your pack-n-play, and although it felt like there was something on every wall, it was not horrible. It jutted out from the wall more than our walk-in-closet built-in's, so the nightly trips to the bathroom were a little difficult in the dark, but otherwise, it was not bad. But it was high time for you to start having your own space.

Once everything backfired with Catherine and we stuck her back into her own space, all was well with the world. So we took your pack-and-play, and stuck it in a corner in James' room. So far, it has worked out well. I let you fall asleep in our bed, and then after James falls asleep, I move you to the pack-n-play. Only tonight, James is refusing to go to sleep. So I put you in there anyway, and surprisingly, James is reading books quietly while you snooze away. Thankfully! Unfortunately, because of James' room lay-out and his bunk beds, we can't fit your dresser in there. So, your dresser is in Catherine's room. Which is not a huge deal, as Catherine's dresser, which holds the changing pad, is right next to yours. Works out pretty well. I remember when I was freaking out about how we were going to arrange you kids, and now it seems like it's working out better than I imagined. And, in the end, it's not permanent. Thank God.

Speaking of sleep, it seems to be missing. Between 2-4 months, you were pretty solid in only waking up once a night to nurse, which was awesome. Once you hit four months, that quickly melted into the past and all of a sudden you were up twice a night. Not a huge deal, as I am on summer break. However, summer break is also different from maternity leave in that I now also have two other kids to watch as well. Which can be difficult when I have to nurse you and put you in your bed for naps. It was a little daunting at first, but at least I can honestly say there hasn't been a time where it doesn't work for us...

So about mid-June, you started waking ALL THE TIME. For example, last night, you ate at 7, 9, 11, 2:30, 4 and 5. Then didn't eat again until about 9 a.m. It was tough. In fact, it's been tough for about a month. Today, I was so tired when the rest of the fam-bam got up at 6:30 that I told Eric he was in charge and passed out in James' bottom bunk for two hours. I tried to take a nap, but again, that was impossible with two other little ones. I used to never nap. Now, I could fall asleep just about any time, any where. Case in point, the other night when I was nursing you, I fell asleep for about an hour and a half, from 6:30-8. Eric woke me up at 8 to ask me something. I moved you to your pack-n-play, cleaned up for the night, and came back to bed at 9. I was looking forward to a great night's sleep, but no, you had other plans.

Most times, if you are up a second or third time, I drag you into bed with me. NOW, I understand co-sleeping. I know it's dangerous, I know you could roll out of bed, or someone could roll on top of you, but holy hell, it's about the only thing that saves me. Luckily, you go right back to sleep once you're done eating. And again, nay-sayers would say you that you don't really need to eat. You just need to be rocked back to sleep. WRONG. I tried that. I tried letting you cry a bit. I tried the pacifier. No-go. You want to eat, and boy do you eat. No wonder we're into 6-9 month clothes already. You're a hefty one!

It also seems in the past month or so that you need to be nursed to sleep, which, of course, ratcheted my anxiety to sky-high levels. I was starting to read all about sleep training methods, which I have never had to use before, when the past week or so, you have started to fall asleep on your own. Most times, I do still nurse you, but you are still awake when I put you down. Or when I move you to James' room, you wake up, but are able to settle back down. I know this seems false, because of what I have written in the previous paragraph, but I do believe I have been blessed with amazing sleepers. James usually sleeps about 12 hours, Catherine sleeps 13-14 hours with a solid 2 hour nap, and you set your own, incredibly easy schedule. 9-10:30/11:00, 1:00-3:00/4:00 and occasionally a cat-nap at 6:00. If so, you go to bed about 8:00 and if not, you go to bed about 7:00. James was the same way, and when Catherine wasn't screaming, she was the same way. Now, if I could just get you to sleep through the night.... I am guessing it will come, with time. Instead of sleep training, I am just going to be patient. Like I said, when you wake up to eat, you EAT. Sometimes just one breast (I have the classic overactive let-down, so usually you can get enough to eat off one boob at a time), but sometimes both. You do the same during the day.

You are rolling back to front with ease, and have started to figure out that if you move your arms and legs at the same time, you might actually get somewhere. It's been fun to watch you try and move around the room. Rolling from front to back is possible, but seems more difficult for you to figure out, and once you do, it's not graceful at all and you don't like it. I think army crawling is in the near future. Hopefully not before we go on vacation in August! We rented a three-floor house, and hope that we don't regret not asking about baby gates.

Otherwise, you're an incredibly chill baby. You cry if you're hungry, tired, or have to poop. You are incredibly easy to read because you have set your own schedule and I just follow your cues. I thank God we were blessed with another "easy" baby, but constipation issues seem to continue to plague us. I had some bananas laying around and thought I would start you on some solid food, only to remember that bananas can lead to constipation. I give you probiotic drops every day, and that seems to help, but again, I can tell you are constipated. Nay-sayers would tell me, and HAVE told me, that breastfed babies don't get constipated. Umm, sorry, but mine do. So other than trying to help the poop along with some probiotic drops and the occasional Miralax, you are an easy baby. Thank you, Drew-boo, for that.

Your eyes are turning a beautiful deep blue. Sometimes, I look at my beauties and all their features, and tonight, I was looking at James and Catherine's eyes. James has deep blue eyes that almost look brown with his brown hair. Catherine has light blue eyes that remind me a lot of my mom's eyes. Both beautiful, but very different. You, my son, are most likely going to have the deep blue eyes of James and me. Eric also has lighter blue eyes, but still very pretty. I also have to say, you are just fricken adorable, and I love taking all my kiddos somewhere. SOMEONE always comments on one of your features. It's amazing how we created all three of you, but you're all so different.

I love you so much, boo-boo, and I can't wait to see what the next month brings!