Catchup: Five Months

August 23:

Dear Finn,

You are more and more fun every month, and this month is no exception.  We love the little personality you're developing, and the big grins that you give out to everyone you see.  You giggle when your Dad lifts you up in the air over his head, when your Mom gives you raspberries, and sometimes you giggle just for the heck of it.  We love your happy disposition!

Speaking of your grin, it's no longer a gummy one.  Your first tooth popped through at the beginning of this month, and the second one followed shortly after.  This first round of teething wasn't too terrible for you, although we can definitely tell when your teeth are bugging you.  Tylenol seems to help, as does the amber teething necklace we got for you.  Apparently becoming your momma has turned me into a bit of a hippie.  Your dad rolls his eyes a little bit when people ask about your necklace, but I say, anything that helps you, we will do (and I know deep down he agrees!).  We're working on keeping your new teeth from interfering with breastfeeding.  So far it's only been a tiny bump in the road.

 We decided that four and a half months was the perfect time to sleep train you, and it seems like you agreed, because it went beautifully.  We followed Dr. Ferber's plan, and it broke your Mom's heart to hear you fuss in your crib, first for three minutes, then for five minutes, then for the first six minutes of the ten minute window.  You were only crying hard for a couple of those minutes, which is a good thing, because I couldn't have taken it for any longer.  After those last six minutes, you were asleep!  And you slept straight through for the next SIX HOURS.  Things just got better from there and you rewarded us with a little more sleep each night.  It's like a whole new world around here.  You go to sleep in your crib without much fussing at all now, maybe a minute or two if at all.  Your routine is now to go to bed between 8:30-9:30 and sleep for 6-8 hours.  Depending on what time you wake up, I either nurse you in your room or in bed with us.  Then you go back to sleep and usually end up with between 11-12 hours total overnight.  We're still working on naps.  You are a big fan of the 25 minute cat variety.

It was a whole lot harder to take your pictures this month, and that's a trend that I see continuing from now on.  You don't want to sit in one place anymore... you are on the move!  You surprised your Dad and I when you scooted yourself from one end of your crib to the other one night while we watched in amazement.  You lift yourself into a pushup, then lunge forward onto your belly.  Between that and your general squirminess, there's no leaving you in one spot and expecting you to stay there anymore.

There were a whole lot more outtakes this month:

 And that was before you discovered your (delicious) sticker.

It's so much fun to watch you learn how to do new things, and to see how proud you are with your new found talents.  This month you are particularly pleased with the volume levels you've been able to reach.  You make some mmmm, baaaa, and gaaaa sounds, sure, but the more fun ones are the high pitch screeches that send our hands up over our ears.  They're happy screeches though, and so we don't really know how to get you to turn down the volume!  We're so impressed that you already know some animal sounds: Velociraptor and Screech Owl.

Five Month Stats: 17 pounds-ish (50-75th %), 27" (90th %)

Size:  Mostly 6 month, some 9 month. I still squeeze you into some 3 month outfits but I'm going to have to give that up very soon.
Nicknames: Finno, Bubbah, Mr. Finn, Boo Boo, Finner, Finnyboo
Must-haves: Baltic Amber Teething Necklace, Lamaze Bill D. Beaver (a replacement for the puppy version that was adopted by Bodie the lab), Organic Cotton Teething Carrot
Milestones:
August 1: scooched from one end of your crib to the other
August 6: second tooth popped through, your bottom right
August 11: first night of sleep training, aka new record of six hours in a row
August 12: you discovered how much fun smacking your lips is
August 20: saying mmm mmm, which your mom is trying to turn into your first word
August 23: first earthquake... you were in the bathtub and your Mom ran out of the house with you wrapped in a hand towel!

It is truly a privilege to be your parents. We just can't get enough of you, little man.

Love you so much I can't stand it,
Momma