Hypercolor Home: 5 Months

About two weeks ago I thought to myself...hmm...what will I write about on Brody's 5 month blog post? It just seemed that not too much had happened since his 4 month post. HOLY COW! Did he ever prove me wrong! There is lots to catch you all up on. So, if you are interested...grab a cup of coffee and a comfy chair, because this might take a while. :D

I went in to check on Brody one morning and I could have sworn I was losing it. Brody was flipped around 180 degrees in his crib. I kept thinking...did I put him down a different way last night? I generally always put him down in the same direction...not always...but usually. I was pretty confident that I had put him down that night the "normal" way, so I just couldn't understand why he was turned around. Oh well, I thought, and eventually convinced myself that I had simply just lost it, and I must have put him down differently. But then the next day when I went in to get him from his nap I figured it out. HE did it! That time he was only turned 90 degrees and I KNEW I didn't put him in there like that. Little monkey likes to do circles in his crib apparently. He kicks his feet up in the air, twists at the hips so his legs fall to the side, pushes his feet off the sides of the crib, and scoots himself around. What a funny little boy! And sometimes now he even just lays there on his side and falls asleep like that.

This past month Brody has also gotten really good at picking things up. He's been able to grasp items when put into his hands for a while now, and he'd even kind of grab for things in front of him. But it always sort of seemed like by accident he would actually get them. Once in his hand he always puts everything into his mouth, of course...he's mastered that skill. But it seems like this past month he's actually caught on to the fact that HE can put things into his hands by himself. He reaches for the toys on his exersaucer now, and actually plays with them, which is so fun to watch. He stares at this clear ball that spins and little beads inside of it dance around. He watches it so intently, then gently puts his hand on the ball and starts pushing or pulling it to watch the beads move. It's so neat to see that little brain working. He also reaches out for his bottles now. And if you put the bottle near him, he'll put both hands on either side and stick it right into his mouth. We are so impressed that our 5 month old can now feed himself. Heck...what does he even need us for?! hehehe
Brody continues to be a screamer. This is his favorite way to communicate with us. It's quite hilarious and we love it.
Brody also started his first taste of solid foods the other day. I've posted about this progress here, and not much has changed since then. He still seems disinterested in the rice cereal. Just the other night though, he was in his exersaucer while Jeff and I ate dinner at the table, and Brody was SO interested in what were doing. He was staring at us just watching each time we'd stick the fork full of food into our mouths. I kept saying to Jeff..."Look! He wants to eat with us!". So last night I tried to feed him rice cereal while we ate dinner again, thinking he's be more interested. It actually worked for the first couple of bites, but then once he figured out it was nasty ole rice cereal, he went back to his usual turning away from the spoon. Hmmph.

Flippin' Burgers with Daddy

Go Hawks!

As of last Saturday (February 26th), Brody officially rolled over for the first time! Well...for the first time from back-to-tummy, anyway. I am most excited about this milestone! He rolled over from tummy-to-back a long time ago, but that's easy peasy baby stuff. haha. My big boy is rolly polly olly now. He does what I described earlier and kicks his legs up in the air, lets 'em flop to the side, then pushes himself to roll onto his stomach. From there he has even pushed himself back onto his back! We couldn't be more impressed with our son!

That's it for the new exciting stuff, but here are some more things to mention...

Sleep schedule is still the same with a bedtime between 8 and 8:30 PM, and awake at 6:45-7:00 AM.
Still getting 5 feedings a day, with 6-7 oz. of milk. We have added one cereal feeding a day, which right now is minuscule.
As far as pumping goes, I've officially decided it's time to call it quits. :( This makes me sad, but I am just not producing enough milk to satisfy Brody at feedings anymore. When I pump throughout the day, I only get between 4 and 5 ounces each time, and since he takes 6 oz bottles, this just wasn't working. So, a few weeks ago I stopped nursing him altogether (except for his first morning feedings on days that I'm with him, because I seem to have enough milk to satisfy him then), and feed him bottles during the day even when I'm with him. So, basically I only nurse him 3 times a week (Wed, Sat, and Sun mornings). For a while I was still pumping 4 times a day (down from 5 about a month ago), but now I'm down to three times. Once at 5:00 AM, again on my lunch break - usually around 12:30 PM, and again after B goes down to bed for the night - around 9:00 PM. I'll continue to do this until I feel like my supply has gone down again. So...all that being said, we were giving B one bottle of formula for his night feeding, and I was able to produce enough to make 4 other bottles for him for the day. That is not the case now, and I'm only able to produce enough for 3 bottles, so I've started tapping into my frozen milk supply. Man does it go quickly! Since this bullet is already a mile long, and many of you have probably already stopped reading this, I'll make it even longer with a side-story about frozen milk! The other night I grabbed one of my 6 oz. frozen bags of milk, placed it in a cup of water to thaw and get ready for the next days bottles, and I left it there. I went to bed and didn't notice till the next morning that it was still sitting in the cup of water. I could have cried. There is nothing quite like having to throw away 30 minutes of your life (that particular 6 oz happened to take me two pumping sessions at 15 minutes each to get). Ugh! What a waste, and all because I was forgetful and probably too sleepy to remember to put it in the fridge. Mmeh! (that's my pouty noise). Ok 'nough talking about "the girls"...if I even still have your attention. :)

Brody loves to play in his exersaucer, roll around on the floor, watch Gussy, scream at his parents (in a good way), and smile smile smile. He's a very happy little guy, and we just love him to pieces.