Happy Five Month Birthday

Dear Connor,

Today you turned 5 months old. That's a lot! And wow, does time fly. This has been, by far, the most difficult month we've had together. But tonight, it almost seems worth it. The difficulty is that I no longer allow you to spend the night in my bed. It was working mostly fine from your point of view (except you had to find me EVERY time you woke up and nurse yourself back to sleep), but it wasn't working from my point of view. Namely, about every 30 - 60 minutes you were waking me up so you could nurse. Sometimes I fell back asleep before you woke up again, and sometimes I didn't. But, because we only nurse on one side, it meant that I had to lie on my right side all night long. It was like being pregnant again and my hips were killing me. At one point, your dad promised to bury me on my left side, should the sleeplessness kill me. But tonight, you went to sleep nursing at about 8:00. When I put you in your crib, you didn't even put up a fuss. You just coughed a couple of times and went to sleep. It is now 9:20 and you are still sleeping peacefully. (By the way, your dad just looked up at me out of the blue and pronounced "I love that baby!" and he does, I assure you.) You've gotten into a groove of waking around 2:00 or 3:00, eating, and then sleeping until 5:30. That, my friend, was my declared limit of when I would get up with you, but today I broke the rule and got you at 5:15. After you ate, I threw you in bed between me and Dad and you slept until about 7:30. YOU ROCK THE HOUSE! It took two incredibly painful evenings of listening to you cry to get to this point. And frankly, I had never really heard you cry until this point, so it was really, really hard. Folks at work have pronounced me the softest parent in the world, and a friend I play cards with compared me to a Vietnam vet suffering PTSD. Two days, Connor. Two painful, painful days. I was constantly amazed that when you woke up, all you did was smile. Your dad said you must not be all Wilhelm because you were very forgiving.

So, now to the fun stuff. You and your dad play a fabulous game of "over" where he puts you on the bed on your back, flips you to your stomach, and then you ready your arm and flip yourself back so you're facing up. I'm not sure if we can really count it as rolling over, but it's close. You also like to be swung back and forth with your head supported and bottom supported and then, on the count of three, sort of dropped onto a fluffy pillow. You will even laugh - and it's really fun to watch because you don't have any teeth, so you open up your mouth so wide and sometimes sounds come out, and sometimes it doesn't - but either way your eyes light up and you are, as everyone says, the cutest baby in the world.


In the evenings, you tell us about your whole day. Really, Connor, it's OK to talk during the day as well. But, for the most part, during the day you coo a bit, sometimes let out a good oiuea, but generally you listen to me rattle on about whatever is going on with us. Then, at about 5:30, you start talking, and talking, and talking, and I can hardly get a word in edgewise - and for those who know me, you know this is very tough for me. Sadly, I can't understand what you're saying, but I'm glad you're saying it. Lots of vowels, few consonants.

You are still bearing weight on your legs when your dad or I hold you in a standing position - but the other day, as you were staring in the mirror (another favorite activity), you leaned forward a bit faster than I could pull you back and bonked your head on that mirror baby - and man did that make you mad. Luckily, you're easily distracted, so this was about 5 seconds of shock and horror on your part, but then onto the rings. Yes, Connor, you like rings. The big plastic ones your Grandma gave you for Christmas. You shake them, eat them, and drop them on the floor.

Yesterday, you tried to give me a hicky. I mean, there I was, just playing with you, when all of sudden you leaned that big head of yours over as if you were going to give me a kiss, and instead opened your mouth as wide as possible (your usual kissing position), and chomped on my NECK. What are you, a vampire? I'm just thankful there were no teeth involved. And then you laughed - your precious, usually silent laugh with a big squeal mixed in.

You are eating solid food like a champ. You have had rice, barley, and oatmeal cereal; bananas and sweet potatoes. If I can find a ripe avocado, you can try that next. Sometimes, you look at me when I'm eating as if to say - I can do that, give it up already! But then, deciding I'm not conceding on this one, you happily bury yourself in my breast and start chomping on milk.

You also have this very special way of pretending to by shy. You look at someone, smile, and then bury your face in my chest when you look away. It's almost as if you're embarrassed - but I don't know why because you are the cutest little man in the world!



As shown in the post a few days ago, you've learned to flip people off - though you haven't repeated the feat in front of me again.

We have been fortunate enough to have Spring come again. It's been over 60 degrees these past couple of days. We've been taking advantage of this by walking around outside a lot.

Today you tried to play chess, but you understand even less about the game than I do. Some day, you can challenge your dad, but I think it's a little ways off.

Love,
Mommy