Drew's 5 1/2 Month Update

The last two weeks have been good. He started sleeping through the night again and only had two days where he woke up before 5:30am and didn't go back to sleep quickly on his own.

Developmental stuff: He is sitting up unassisted for very brief times before he will tip over which is pretty much what Isaac was doing at 5 1/2 months. Although I did not ever realize when this started he is transferring toys between hands. I am sure I just missed this milestone a long time ago, but I just noticed it.

Air travel: This was his second big trip since he was born. This was his first flight and he did great! Both flights he fell asleep at take off. The first flight he was startled awake after a short 40 minute nap and was not too happy so I nursed him and then he was good to go. The return flight was even better because he stayed asleep the whole time (just an hour) and I got to read a book. Can you believe it? Going through security with just a baby is amazingly easy to me now, but I remember when the whole flying experience was stressful even when we just had Hannah. Experience and perspective does wonders!

Sleeping/schedule while traveling: This is always the dreaded part for me. It is just a pain to constantly rework schedules mentally as the days progresses and to worry about him waking up our hosts at night. This is really just a me problem though because really my babies usually do fine. He rolled with the punches and got 3 or 4 naps a day depending how the day went as far as activities that interrupted his naps. He had the most trouble sleeping while we were in Indiana due to the time change(1 hour back) and the close quarters where he had to nap. He was frequently woken up after only 45 minutes when we were at Grandma Bess' room. In the morning on Ash Wednesday, he woke up at 4am (which was 5am in his little internal clock) despite me trying to keep him awake later the night before.

My biggest problem is this transition to 3 naps a day. He can stay awake for two hours, but that is it, absolutely no more. So my problem arises from his early morning wakings even though I am getting used to them. Here's an example day if I let him take two hour naps (which puts him on a 4 hour between feedings schedule)...

If he wakes at 5:30am
nap @ 7:30am
wakes @ 9:30am
nap @ 11:30am
wakes @ 1:30pm
nap @ 3:30pm
(Here is the problem. This is supposed to be the evening 45 minute catnap, but it isn't evening, nor is it early enough for an evening catnap to come later on. Big problem, this means a much later bedtime and moving to a less than 3 hour between feedings schedule for the rest of the evenings.)
wakes @ 4:14pm
nap @ 6:15pm
wakes @ 7pm
bedtime @ 9pm

To head this problem off, if he wakes at 5:30am and I nurse him at that time, I have to wake him at each nap after 1 1/2 hours and go with a 3 1/2 hour schedule for the majority of the day. I shorten his wake times towards the end of the day and end up at a 3 hour schedule then. The main problem with this is that he seems disinterested in at least one feeding a day when he's on a 3 1/2 hour schedule (i.e. nursing 6 times a day instead of 5.)

If he wakes at 5:30am
nap @ 7:30am
wakes @ 9am
nap @ 11am
wakes @ 12:30pm
nap @ 2pm
wakes @3pm
nap @ 5pm
wakes @5:45pm
bed time @7:45pm

So you can see that it lends itself to a better bed time with the adjustments. However, who wants to wake their baby after 1 1/2 hours when they could go 2? It is hard to make yourself do that. When he sleeps until 6:30am, which he does some weeks/days then it is possible to do a 4 hour routine all day and still end up with a reasonable bed time.

He's still smiley and easy going unless he is overly tired. He will go to anyone with not an ounce of stranger anxiety yet.

New introductions: The sippy cup! He is trying out water in the sippy cup. I usually introduce this at 4 months but waited until after this trip on purpose. One less thing to travel with, you see. At the hotel, I did mush up banana and let him suck it off my finger. He loved it and kept diving for my fingers to jam them in his mouth. In a couple weeks, Drew will be trying his first bites of baby cereal. I am gearing up for homemaking his cereal like I did for Genna. Maybe. I think. Almost surely. Time just flies by, doesn't it?