Joey 5 Months

Whoah.  Well it happened, my Joey Bear turned 5 months old.

"Well Hello there..."  This would be a 12-month size onesie he is drowning in because I can't currently find our 6-month stash!  MomFail.

PHOTO BOMB! LOL!

 He's into:

Sucking his hands all.the.time.

His jumper

Rolling around on the floor - he will crane his neck in the most unnatural way to get his body to maneuver around so he can see what the heck is going on

Being held

Watching his sister

Talking

Blowing raspberries

His bath

Looking out the car window during car rides

Me singing to him.  (I know...what the?!)

Sleeping on his belly

 He's NOT into:

Eating rice cereal

Being the slightest bit hungry.  Even if he's already eaten TWICE in the past hour.

Having a dirty diaper.

Being put down after being held.  Not acceptable!

 Other Notes about Joey Bear:

He's mostly sleeping through the night. Still.  PTL.  Goes to bed around 8pm, same as big sister.  If he does wake up, it's usually around 4 or 5am, he's pooped his dipe and hungry again.  

I don't mind this time with him at all.  

I love that quiet, dark time together with him.  

He smiles at me and grips my hand as I feed him.  

Melts my heart.

He's getting good at holding objects like a spoon to suck on or Sophie the Giraffe

No idea what he weighs...I'm guessing 16+ pounds.

Wearing 6-12 month clothing now.  He's gigantic!

Still has the most beautiful deep blue eyes.  His hair has come back in and it's fuzzy and dark blonde.

He has the most contagious laugh and giggle 

and it's so easy to get a smile out of him.  

Oh, and he's LOUD ; )  

His personality continues to emerge every day and so far, 

I'd say he's a pretty happy guy 

who likes to be in on the action.

He's had some diarrhea the past couple of days - not sure what that's all about, 

but he is certain to let me know about it as soon as he's dirty.  

Whole lotta diaper changin' round here.

I've stopped breastfeeding.  This was a really hard decision for me and I'm still sad about it.  

It was going so well....until it wasn't.

I would feed and feed and feed him.  And it still wasn't enough.  He would scream and cry.  Every feeding was being supplemented with a bottle. (We could've continued down that road for infinity.)  Have you seen his little rolls?  He wasn't starving, lol!

In addition, he was getting to be a barracuda to breast feed.  Thrashing and bucking around.  Breaking the latch when he got distracted (which was 50 times per feeding).  I would contort my body to get him to latch on and have rotten neck aches.  It just seemed to get more difficult each day.  *Meanwhile, I'd no sooner get settled in with him, get him latched on, and Morgan would come running up to me screeching she needs more water* #cantwin

I could have corrected the low supply situation, I suppose, with pumping.  But there was never time during the day to pump with 2 kids under 2, and by evening I am too exhausted.  And really?  I just wasn't that motivated.  Sure, if he were 2 months old, I would've been more aggressive to get my baby breast milk,  but at this point I was ready to have my body back to myself.  I've been pregnant and or nursing for the past 2+ years STRAIGHT.  I think there was maybe a month in there that I stopped pumping for Morgan and then got pregnant again.  So I decided it was time.

My Dr. also explained to me that as long as I continue to breastfeed, my body will remain in an estrogen-starved state.  Meaning the brain lapses, wonky hormones and mood swings would continue.  In an effort to get everything to even out again, I counted that as one of my "Pro's" for stopping now.

So that's that.  In the coming month I am hoping to get him eating more rice cereal and we'll probably start some solid foods.  (If I can wrap my NOT READY Mama head around that!)

We love this little boy SO MUCH - I don't know why, but now with 2 kids, I really feel like a "family".  It's hard to explain.  So is the love I have for this guy - there aren't enough words to convey how I feel about him!

Just for fun, to compare them both at 5 months old....I don't really think they look that much alike any more!