Five Months, Three Weeks.

This is the week that I started writing in my online diary again after Bean was born, and I know why. Seems my kids turn that mystical baby corner right about now, and become happy, flexible little people after spending the first five months of life trying to kill their Mama.

Oh, I'm kiddin'. Sorta.

But Peabody, like Bean, has just finally, in the past week become, dare I say, EASIER. He's developing a little routine, spending more and more hours being happy and chipper and all those good kinds of things. And just now, when I put him down for his nap, AWAKE, and stood by his crib for a minute, he smunched around a little, snuggled his blankets, turned his head back and forth a few times, yawned, blinked, and fell off to sleep.

It was cute, people. And well, EASY.

Did I say he's getting easier?

Mama likes easier.

Yesterday he finally decided to get serious in his endeavors to roll himself from back to front. And now he's doing it over and over again, with ease. There's that lovely word again. So much ease, in fact, that he did it TWICE in the bathtub last night and nearly scared my wits out of me.

When he rolls over on dry land, he quickly props himself up AS FAR AS HE CAN GO on his hands, like he's trying to lift himself up off the ground or something, and he SCREECHES like - AAAAAAA-HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! And smiles his everlovin' little cheeks off. OH, he is a proud, proud little man. And then he drops back down off his hands and reaches them out in front of himself to grasp whatever his little baby-blues can see worth grabbing.

And he's still a little pig. Can you believe he eats at LEAST 2/3rds of a cup of oatmeal (baby oatmeal, of course) per feeding? And on top of that he'll allow me to sneak half a jar of baby fruit or a little mashed banana, too. So he's eating just under a cup of food. THREE TIMES A DAY. I honestly don't know where he puts it all. Where DOES he put it all? And then he nurses, too! Craziness!

Okay so here's how Peabody's days are going lately:

12:30 AM - Wake for a belly full of milkies. Guzzle them down while still half asleep and fall back into bed like sack of cute little potatoes.

5:00 AM - Another belly full of milkies. Guzzle, fall back to bed, this time not quite so potato-ish. Chat with giraffes and birds on mobile. Accidentally fall back to sleep.

7:15 AM - Wake up and squeal with glee. IT'S LIGHT OUTSIDE. SOMEBODY COME GET THE BOY PLEASE! BUT HOLD ON BECAUSE I HAVE TO POOP FIRST. Deliver award-winning smile and major cloud of stinky to all who appear cribside. Giggle when everyone says, "EEEEEEE-YOOOOOOOO. You made stinkies again!"

7:15 - 8:00 AM - Get diaper changed, drink more milkies, snuggle and play with family.

8:00 - Eat vast quantities of oatmeal and fruit then sit in bouncy chair while everybody else eats.

8:30 - More playing. On floor or in exersaucer. Mama cleans up kitchen and does assorted housework.

9:15 - Get sleepy. Start grousing. Turn on waterworks if that becomes necessary. On Wednesday or Fridays, go with Mama to take Bean to school.

9:30 - More milkies and morning nap.

11:15 - SQUEAL everybody back into my room. Get my second or third diaper change and my clothes on and drink some milkies.

11:30 - Playtime. On Wednesdays and Fridays, go with Mama to pick Bean up from school.

12:00 - MORE OATMEAL AND FRUIT OR VEGGIES, PLEASE. FAMISHED!

12:15 - Hang out while Mama and Bean eat lunch.

12:30 - 2 PM - Play, play, play with Bean and Mama.

2 PM - Bean and I get ready for naps. Diaper change and milkies for me, story for both of us if we can both hold our eyes open. Then we go to bed.

3:45 - CHATTER. Call Mama. COME GET ME! I'm lonely! Get my diaper changed, drink some milkies.

4:00 - 5:30 PM - Play with Mama and Bean.

5:30 - SUPPERTIME! Nom nom nom.

6:00 - Bathtime. Kicky, splashy, play with my ducky. Get snuggled and lotioned and pajama'd.

6:30 - Spend a few minutes in my saucer waiting for my man Daddy to get home. Sit with everybody while they have their dinner.

7:00 - Say goodnight to everybody and take Mama upstairs for my last milkies of the day. Collapse in a heap in my bed. Another great day in the life of Mr. Peabody comes to its happy end.

That's how it's been going for the past few days, anyway. I'm hoping we can stick with this for awhile, 'cause it's working for all of us and I'm starting to feel my sanity creeping back, finally!

Sleepity Sleep Sleep

Peabody slept from 7:30 last night to 11:00 PM, when he awoke, grabbed a quick belly-full of milk and then went back to sleep until 5. I nursed him at five and he didn't want to resettle, but I put him back to bed and he stayed quiet until 5:40, when he called for me again, so I went and rocked him for a few minutes and put him back to bed at 6. He was up for the day at 7:15.

I also wanted to add that Al and Bean are both quite smitten with our boy, too. Not just me. When he wakes in the mornings, Bean and I RUSH in to get him, and it's the same with naps. On weekends all THREE of us, Daddy, Bean and I, clambor in and peek over the bed rails at him and fight over who gets Peabody's first big beaming smile.

Five and a Half Months

Oh, my boy.

Peabody surprised the heck out of me last night by sleeping from 8 PM to juuuuuuuuuust before 5 AM. Of course, as any self-respecting neurotic Mama would, I woke up at 3:30 AM and lay there worrying he was dead until he started cooing at 4:45. It doesn't even sound crazy to me in the light of day, either. I was THAT doubtful that he'd sleep that long, as he's been back to waking every 3 to 3.5 hours again for weeks. And I expect this long sleep to have been a fluke. I am definitely not getting my sleep-like-normal-humans hopes up about Mr. Peabody - he's nothing if not totally unpredictable.

For the past fourish days or so, after he finally shook off the final remnants of a cold he'd had for awhile, he's also been napping very well, 90 minutes at least but usually more, twice a day, from about 9:30 to 11 and again from 2ish to 4. Then he goes to bed between 7 and 8, depending on when Al gets home and we get dinner eaten and cleaned up. I LOVE this schedule - it's perfect for all of us, gives Al a chance to see his son each day, and gives me time to get some things done around the house. Again, though, I'm trying to just keep my hopes in check because he's always been so darned unwilling to commit to any type of pattern!

Also, he has TEEF! Two of them. The two bottom middles are just slightly peeking above the surface of the gum. Yes, indeedy. He's only taken 3 1/2 months to slowly and painfully and slimily coax them in, my poor boy. I hope he gets a little break now, I really do.

The boy eats like a horse, too. He's still nursing like a CHAMP, every two to three hours, and eating vast quantities of oatmeal and a few little ittybitty bits of organic fruits and veggies when we feel like it. With these teeth, I think I'll start offering him some bits of real food, a la baby-led weaning, as well. Peabody loves to reach for, retrieve and hold onto things right now, and drop them, pick them back up, drop them again, and in the process insert them into his little drooly maw a time or two hundred, so adding food to his favorite game seems like a great way to open up the world of cuisine to his little self.

Oh, and I love him. He's the most beautiful, cheerful, loving, flirty, handsome, funny little boy ever made. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I love him love him love him!

LOOK AT THIS BOY! WHO COULD NOT LOVE HIM?

Five Monthsish - Just Stuff

My hormones are WACKY these days! I'm losing all my hair, my skin's a complete disaster, I've had some weird spotting (no period though) and my moods are just all over the map from minute to minute almost.

We even had a bizarre what-if-we're-pregnant-again week last week. I took pregnancy tests EVERY DAY for 4 days and of course with Al's surgery (back in November) and my nursing though the night still, it all came out negative but I sure FELT pregnant for a few days!

Peanut had a few nights of sleeping VERY well, only getting up once a night and sleeping 6 hours at a stretch, but that has all ended as quickly as it began and he's back to getting up to eat every 3 to 3 1/2 hours.

We've started him on cereal - I can't remember exactly when, maybe 2 weeks ago? And I know it's not 100% advisable/approved by the American Association of Pediatricians, but the boy was hungry ALL THE TIME and miserable, so we tried him with some cereal mixed with breastmilk and he slurped it down like he'd been doing it all his life. He's eaten two small meals daily (breakfast and dinner) for awhile now but yesterday we added a lunch portion as well. He just loves to eat his little meals and he kicks and smiles and coos through them happily unless the spoon isn't getting into his mouth fast enough and then he whines and cries for Mama or Daddy to hurry up.

It's amazing how this has actually IMPROVED our nursing relationship. He still nurses just as often, pretty much, but it's so much more relaxed and happy vs. his being frantic and my being stressed out. Now he eats and pulls off and looks up at me and GRINS into my eyes, whereas before the cereal he'd pull off angrily and cry sometimes. I feel like it's improved things overall for him and for me, though we still have a long way to go before I feel like myself again. I am trying hard not to rush him along but this waking time and time again is beginning to wear so much on me. I mean it's worn on me all along but I just see the toll it takes on me emotionally and how dead I feel from tiredness and how that takes away from Bean and Al and my other relationships, friendships, etc. That's such a recurring theme in my life right now - how much I adore my boy but how I ache to be able to invest more time and energy in the other people I love. But not at his expense.

He's just a different baby at this point than Bean was. She'd become happier and more predictable by now, I think (I didn't start diarying her life until she was almost six months so I'm not 100% sure of exactly what she was like). I think she was only getting up once a night by now, too, and by six months she went through a phase of sleeping through the night although that didn't last very long, I don't think. But after four months I don't think she ever got up more than once a night unless she was sick. Of course she was guzzling tons of formula by that point, too.

Peabody's very very physical and busy these days grabbing and holding and shaking toys, teething on EVERYTHING, and try, try, trying to get mobile when he's on the floor. He can roll from front to back easily still but hasn't QUITE made the back to front maneuvre on his own. He so loathes being on his front that I'm not sure he'll EVER learn that until he learns to crawl and HAS to get on his front to do it. And since he's a tummy sleeper, not being able to get onto his tummy from his back after he's flipped himself over is a major interrupter to his sleep.

OY. I am feeling rather negative about the whole baby thing right now. He took two wonderful naps yesterday - 2 hours each! But then the night sleep was awful. Maybe that was too much sleep for him? I don't know.

Also, Peabody is a major spitter-upper! I burp and burp and burp him after his meals, both liquid and solid, and still he spits up after each of them. Sometimes it can be quite a bit and others it's a fairly small amount. I just wonder why he does that and how much longer he WILL do it. I'm getting a bit weary of smelling like sour milk all the time, and I worry there's somthing wrong with him. He doesn't show signs of any major problems and he's of course gaining weight like nobody's business, so it can't be serious. And he's always done it - since he was tiny, so it's nothing new.

Well he's up now (the naps aren't going well today at all!) so I'm off to get him again.

ARGH.

I miss the rest of my family so much. And me. I miss ME.