All About Eve: Months Four, Five & Six

These posts are as much for me as anyone. I'm not otherwise keeping a record of Eve's growth and changes, so feel free to skip on over these.

When I try to remember details from these last three months (and actually, the last six) it's hard -- everyone said it would go by in a flash, and I guess that's true. Certainly everything is a big blur. But the days don't go by that fast, really. Not individually. My days aren't filled with 400 million thousand things that I'm racing to get done, where I blink and the whole day is over and in six hours I'll be back where I started. That's what work was like, when it was busy. This current, stay-at-home-with-the-baby life is not like that at all.

It's slow. It's not bad, it's many wonderful things. But it's slow, and it gets lonely. Days are filled with baby, and trying to do things with baby that are interesting for us both. Some days are more interesting than others.

* * * * * *

Eve was small for her age. Not unhealthy small, just small. She was in the 10th percentile for height/weight/head size at her 4-month check-up. And then sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas, she transformed into an entirely different baby. She went from being a small, fragile-looking infant to looking like A Baby. It happened almost overnight, and I'm not exaggerating at all. One day, she just couldn't fit into any of her old standbys.

I ordered a jumper thing for her. It's called the Jumperoo (I only mention it because every time we put her in it, Ish and I launch into singing Jump Around by House of Pain, a la "jump a-roo, jump a-roo, jump up jump up and___ ___." That last word changes a lot. Sometimes it's "make poo" but sometimes it's just "doo doo" because we're too lazy to make up different words.) Well, and I suppose I should mention it because she LOVES it. Unlike her chair-bouncer or swing, which took getting used to and which she never really enjoyed the way I've heard most babies do.

Anyway. When we got the bouncer, her feet came nowhere near touching the floor. I had to stack two thick coffee table books under her to allow her to be able to jump at all. Then five days later, she didn't need one of the books. Two weeks after that, she didn't need either of them.

Honestly, it's like she just decided she was done being tiny. Her thighs look like someone inflated them. I remember one Christmas maaaaaany years ago, when my mom bought my CuzNate this hilarious apparatus based on The Incredible Hulk. You put these modified water wings around your body, and when you were ready to be MAD, you inflated the muscles and they expanded. (Uh, unless you were amazingly fast and gifted at blowing stuff up, however, the muscles did not exactly inflate so fast that anyone would be scared or that any shirts would be ripped.) And now that she's been inflated, she's moved into the 25% for her age.

Sadly, her hair has fallen. She's no longer the rooster she once was. She's still got plenty of hair, it's just that her fauxhawk flap has collapsed, and the new hair that's growing in around it isn't quite as wild as the first growth. Yet, anyway.

* * * * * *

There have been so many changes since Eve was @ 3 months.

She'd been sleeping in her bassinet next to the bed. Once she started waking up only once in the middle of the night, we decided she was big enough to be moved to her crib in her room. We thought it might take a while to transition her, but, well, it took none. The first night we put her down to sleep in her crib, she didn't even seem to notice the difference.

At her 4-month mark, she was still breastfeeding fairly regularly, though I was supplementing with formula regularly as well. We were in a great groove for a few weeks, where I would breastfeed her at night to fall asleep, in the middle of the night when she woke up, then first thing in the morning. She'd take a bottle during the days, except I'd breastfeed her to get her to nap.

But by 5 months, she had grown less and less happy with the boob and would only take it in the mornings and for naps. Then just for naps. Then not at all. So, that's how I stopped breastfeeding. Eve just stopped wanting to.

[By the way, I wrote this in my 1-3 month summary: "every time she nurses from my right breast, she takes her right arm and puts it over her head, and grabs a tuft of her hair in her tight little fist. I wonder if she'll keep doing this, or a variation of this, as she grows. I kind of hope so." For what it's worth, she does still do this when she's tired and taking a bottle.]

* * * * * * *

I read that by six months, babies tend to have more of a schedule, and that's certainly been true for us.

Sometime shortly after my last update, I realized that my least favorite part of the day was the evening. Eve was a miserable baby after about 5:30 p.m. and would fuss and be cranky straight until we went to bed around 9.

After several weeks of this, it occurred to me that um, you know what? Maybe her bedtime isn't 9 p.m. anymore. Maybe it's when she starts to get tired!

Oh, first-time moms.

And that's how it remains. Eve goes to sleep around 6ish, and if we're lucky will sleep through the night. Sometimes she'll wake around midnight because she's hungry -- this happens about 50% of the time. Otherwise, she sleeps until around 5 or 6, when we bring her into bed with us, and either she'll insist on getting up, or fall asleep for a little while longer.

She still only naps in 30 minute increments, about three times a day.

* * * * * * *

Right around Christmas, we started her on solid foods. We'd tried a couple times before this, but the attempts were somewhat disastrous, and Ish said it looked like we were trying to paper-mache her.

She's getting better, and in no time I'm sure she'll be gobbling all kinds of things up. I was really excited to read that new studies show you don't have to be quite so fastidious about introducing foods slowly, and that babies are capable (and willing) to eat lots of different things -- they don't have to be bland and uninteresting. I think this is awesome, and can't wait to start making fun stuff for us all.

For now, she would be happy to eat pears for every meal. Here is a minute-long video of what we considered a "successful" pear-feeding. (Narrated for family; didn't know I'd post it on the blog.)

* * * * * * * *

Eve is a good baby. I've said before, I don't have anything to compare her to really, but by all accounts, she's been very easy. Her temperament never changed. She didn't suddenly become difficult. She's still a good night-sleeper. She still goes with the flow. She doesn't nap well, but she'll take her 30-minute naps anywhere we put her down.

We were petrified to fly with her across the country for Christmas, but she was an angel. She never cried, she just sat and stared and ate and slept. Like she does every other day. I have no idea why this is.

She's still very alert, very interested in what's going on around her. We can't take her out in her carseat/carrier for too long, or we run the risk of her getting frustrated by not being able to see what's happening.

We finally bought a portable high chair that attaches to the table, so when we take her out for a meal, she can be part of the action (instead of being tucked into her carrier).

We love it so much we don't really see a need to get a traditional high chair.

She still can't sit unassisted, and no, she's not crawling yet, but ohmygod is she ever a babbling fool. She yammers and yells and howls and sings and coos and laughs on and off all day long.

When she wakes up in the morning, she doesn't cry, she babbles. If we don't come get her, eventually she'll whine. But no hysterics. Not ever.

She's pretty much all smiles.