5 Months Old!!

Today Alayna is five months old. It is so hard to believe that five months have gone by already since she has been born, but yet I can't remember what life was like before she came. Though I vaguely remember getting more sleep.

No doctor check up this month so I don't have officially statistics on her growth, but from what I can tell she has gotten taller and maybe put on a pound. She is finally growing out of some of her 0-3 month clothes so I know she is growing, but she is still a little peanut. 5 months old and still wearing 3 month clothes.

This past month has been a busy one. I got home from Indianapolis on the 19th. We got the go ahead from the doctor at Alayna's 4 month check up to start some rice cereal. At first Alayna wasn't so sure she wanted it and we are introducing it very slowly so she gets the hang of eating. I don't blame her for not liking it though, it looks like wallpaper paste. I refuse to try it though. Here some pics of her sitting in her high chair and enjoying her rice cereal.

Waiting for her cereal

Eating like a lady :-)

Alayna has also started playing more in her exersaucer and jumper. She likes playing in both but has a short attention span right now since she still can't figure out some of the toys on it. She really likes the jumper when we make it bounce for her but she hasn't quite got the hang of using her legs to make it bounce herself.

Playing in her exersaucer

This past month we took a family vacation to Wisconsin for a week. My parents host a very large tailgate party for a Brewer's game each year and so we made the trip for the game. We also then tied onto the back of that a trip up to Townsend, WI for a week of boating, relaxing and spending time with my family. This year was extra special since my Aunt Danielle and family made the trip from CA. All in all, there were about 30 of between my grandma, aunts, uncles, cousins, extended family and dogs. We had such a good time and it was so great for Alayna to meet all of her family and spend the entire week with them. Everyone spoiled her with tons of attention and she was such a good girl, despite all the traveling and changes in her schedule. We did a lot of up north things, boating, skiing, swimming, floating in the water, playing ladder ball, eating and drinking. I finally got my Friday night Fish Fry that I have been wanting since July. We also had time to spend an evening with our friends Joe and Jenny Gliniecki. Derek and I use to work with Joe and we played intermural sports and hung out a lot with he and Jenny when we were in WI. They have a little girl Caedence who will be 2 in November and a little one on the way. It was nice to catch up and spend some time with them and it was also fun to watch Alayna and Caedence together. Alayna couldn't do much playing but she loved to watch Caedence and Caedence shared her toys so nicely with Alayna. Alayna also swam for the first time in Nana and Grandpa's pool on the Sunday before we left. She was hesitant at first but like going around the pool in her floatie.

Celebrating at Kugerittaville

Alayna shaded in her tent

The family at our Friday night fish fry

Alayna and Caedence playing

Swimming in Nana and Grandpa's pool with mommy

Alayna has started to really advance in the past month. She is turning and reaching for things and looking for toys if she drops them. She is also rolling both from her tummy to her back and her back to tummy regularly now. Her core is getting a lot stronger, she likes to do baby sit-ups...at least that is what it looks like, she lifts her head and shoulers off the ground when she is on her back. Maybe sitting will be in the near future? Alayna also loves to put EVERYTHING into her mouth these days. Toys, blankets, her lovies, her hands and feet, all go straight into her mouth. Though, that is probably because Alayna got her first two teeth this past month. The first one we didn't even notice, the daycare provider pointed it out to us. She barely had any symptoms of teething, just one night of total fussiness. The second one came out when we were on vacation in Milwaukee. One morning it was just there, poking through. No signs that time either.

We also have just started to try to sleep train Alayna. Her doctor said at her 4 month check up that Alayna doesn't "need" to wake up at night anymore to eat. So, if she wakes up before 4-5am we are not to feed her just soothe her to fall back asleep and if she needs to cry for awhile for that to happen to let her. We didn't do it earlier in the month because of all the travel so we just started recently. It's tough, because we also finally transitioned to her crib so a lot of new things might be overwhelming but Alayna is adjusting. She woke up around 1:20am last night and we went in to soothe her and then left. She cried for about 30 min before falling back asleep. She woke up again at 3am and well frankly, I fed her. I know I shouldn't have but well, she was tired and hungry and so was I. It's a learning process for both of us. Hopefully she adjusts and will be sleeping champ in no time.

That's about it from the last month. There are more pictures of our trip to WI and Alayna in the past month on my facebook page.