Lydia: 4-5 Months

Lydia turned 5 months old this weekend. Where did my infant go? Lydia is still definitely a baby, but she definitely doesn't have that newborn-infant feel anymore. She is so alert and is learning new things every day. It's amazing to watch her because one day she won't be able to do something and then overnight she can do it! For exampls: she loves to hold on to her toys, but she usually drops it after a couple of minutes, but yesterday David was holding her and walking around his parents house. She had a little plastic key ring in her hand and she held it and chewed on it for a good half an hour without dropping it once! That may sound silly, but it just goes to show how coordinated she is getting.

Other things that I want to remember about Lydia at this age:

--She can still only roll over from her back to her front. She is a pro and can roll in seconds - but she still hasn't even attempted to try to roll back. She seems pretty content on her tummy most of the time, but after a while she will get upset and cry. I will then roll her back over and less than 30 seconds later she will roll herself back to her tummy. It's such a fun game for me. I'm just enjoying this time that I have where she is not mobile because I know as soon as she can roll over both ways it will be much harder to keep her in the same place.

--Lydia is such a happy baby! She is super content to go wherever I go. We go to the store, we go on walks, we drive around in the car. For the most part she is a happy camper. I really think that she loves to explore and see new places. Whenever we go somewhere new she just cant get enough of looking around and drinking it all in.

--Lydia has been sleeping better at night. Not all the way through the night yet - but she is sleeping better. Our sleep schedule right now goes something like:
7:30 am - wake up
9:00 am - morning nap (1 hr)
12:00 pm - noon nap (1hr)
3:30 pm - afternoon nap (45 minutes)
5:30 pm - evening nap (45 minutes)
8:00 pm - bed time!
11:30-12:00am - wake up and eat
2:30- wake up and rock to sleep
4:30- wake up and rock to sleep
6:00- bring into bed and feed (especially now that it is so cold in the mornings!)

--I know that you aren't supposed to put blankets in the bed with the baby - but now that Lydia can roll over, she will roll over and cry and cry and cry. If I go back in to roll her back to her back, she will cry even harder when I don't pick her up. So we have two tightly rolled up blankets in her crib to prevent her from rolling over. It's ridiculous, but until she can roll back over, I hate having her get stuck - and even worse - not ever sleeping.

--My sweet baby has turned into a little bit of a mama's baby. I'll be honest, this makes me feel kind of special. She is old enough that she can look around and point her arm out to me. (She doesn't really reach for me yet, but it's like - she keeps her arm in my direction no matter where I walk. It's so cute!) Sometimes when David gets her out of her bed, he will pick her up and she will look around like "Hey, where is my mom?" It makes it a little harder to have other people hold her, because she just likes to hang out with me - but I really love it. She is my special girl, and it makes me happy to know that she loves me, too.

--Lydia has started being able to sit up a little bit. She still can't sit up on her own - and after just a little while she gets tired and she will start learning forward until she makes to faceplant. But she is sitting! The day that she really started being able to do that is the day that my infant-baby disappeared! I took one look at her and was amazed at how big she is. Soon she will be sitting and in just a month or so we will be starting in on the rice cereal!

--She has also been progressing rapidly with how strong her legs are. She can fully support her weight on her legs. It's just the balance that she can't do. But if you are holding her, she can stand up - and actually prefers standing to sitting or laying down.

--One day Lydia woke up and sounded like she had lost her voice. She was horse throughout the whole day. I was a little worried and kept a close eye on her to make sure that she wasn't fevering (she wasn't acting sick). Her voice came back the next day but was a little lower than it had been. I thought that it would go back to normal - but it hasn't. I know that babies sound different at different ages, but it just happened so suddenly. I'm so glad that she wasn't sick!

--Now that Lydia is happy to spend more time on the floor, we have a really fun time laying down and playing with her. I love to see her face light up with a huge smile when her daddy gets down to play with her. She sure loves him a lot - almost as much as he loves her.

Here are some more photos:

We love this little girl so much! I can't believe that she is five months old. (I feel like I say that every time. Will it ever end? Will the rest of my life be full of disbelief that my little girl is so.. big?)