I took about 50 photos of Robin at 5 months and she is smiling in every single one of them. I have never seen a happier baby. Even when she’s over tired or not feeling well (R had her first fever last night) she is smiling.
Robin is doing the inchworm thing and is a pro at grabbing items around her. She adores Lilly and has a strange obsession with having her feet in her mouth at all times. She is definitely teething.
We moved Robin into her own room last weekend. She is starting to sleep better at night (knock on wood) and after a few weeks of stirring frequently she has just been up once to eat and sometimes an additional time looking for her pacifier. She takes two naps (9 and 1) and a catnap before dinner, but the naps vary in length and sometimes are as short as 35 minutes.
Robin continues to eat solid foods once a day and has tried accouple fruits and vegetables (doesn’t seem to like bananas) but the servings remain small. She has plenty of time to explore new foods!
As Lilly is getting older her intelligence amazes and sometimes confuses us. She is changing so quickly and expresses herself with ease, talking in more complex sentences all the time now. These changes have brought forth some behaviors we’re not used to, one of which I discuss below.
Over the past two months Lilly has developed some anxiety with bedtime. She repeatedly asks if she’s okay (“Lilly okay?”) and we typically go back into her room 3 or 4 times before she falls asleep. She also wakes up once in the night asking us to cover her up and wants to hear that she’s okay. Her bedtime routine has stayed the same and we can’t think of any real reason this started (started after her 2nd birthday when she had her first bad fall so that could have set it off). We’ve tried various things to make her feel more comfortable and have talked to her about it but nothing has changed. She does not seem very fearful and does not get upset so we’re not too worried about it but we hate thinking that she’s not comfortable by herself (we’re seriously considering having the girls share a room when we move). I’ve been tempted to ignore her but don’t feel that it’s right at this time given that there seems to be some anxiety attatched to the behavior. At this point the act seems almost habitual and this past week we contacted some professionals for advice so hopefully things will change for her soon.
Meanwhile I’ve seen a nutritionist a few times to work on improving meal time and Lilly’s diet, which over the past 5 months has been lacking in variety. Our strategy is to offer Lilly 3 or 4 foods of our choosing at mealtime and if she chooses not to eat any of them that is ‘okay’ but she does not get any more food until the following meal or snack time. This is a common practice for children and has been well researched and documented by Ellyn Satter. We reluctantly started to give her cow’s milk instead of rice milk for the time being so she has a better source of protein while her food intake remains low (she has always loved vegetarian milk and seems to like cow’s milk as well). Lilly is already doing much better and I’m seeing an improvement in what she eats. I’m determined for our girls to have healthy eating habits and not fall into the same traps that I did!
Update: We started leaving Lilly’s door open a crack for nap and night time and it seems to have changed the behavior completely. She rarely asks if she’s ‘okay’ and doesn’t get out of bed.
We had a fun 8 day visit with Grandma! Our week was filled with our favorite things: the zoo, a ladies luncheon, lots of good food, shopping, and more shopping! It was so nice to have her here. Bill and I went out for our first ‘date night’ since Robin was born and we spent lots of time with the girls. We love you, Grandma!
Robin had her first taste of food today! We decided to start her on brown rice cereal since she continues to struggle with acid reflux and gas. We made it a fun event and I’m not sure how much she actually ate, but she seemed to like it and was grabbing for the spoon right away. Lots of food exploration in the near future!
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