Autumn – Month 5
Now that Autumn has reached 5 months old, she seems a much happier and more settled baby. She’s sleeping and eating really well and she is very chilled. She’s absolutely no trouble to take out and about and because she smiles at everyone she gets lots of fuss and attention.
She’s had a couple of little colds this month. One of them really got her very stuffed up in the nose, so we gave her some infant Calpol which did wonders. She was a little bit sick with the first cold but overall she did seem to cope with it well. Austin hardly ever got colds as not only was he an only child, but we also went into lockdown when he was just 8 months old meaning he didn’t catch any germs until he went to nursery.
Sleeping
We’ve really got into a routine with naps. That being said if we need to go out in the morning, she is quite happy with a short first nap and then adjusts her later naps to be longer. I’m enjoying the flexibility and also the fact that she’s no trouble when I put her down. She’s normally asleep in minutes and I don’t have to rock her off to sleep. If she’s a bit unsettled, just a quick cuddle seems to calm her and then she’s happy to go down. We have been using a Sleepyhead (which I think has been rebranded to Dock-A-Tot) which I think helps her as she still gets startled quite easily and it keeps her all cuddled up.
She wakes up between 6 am and 7 am. I put her down for her first nap around 8 am. She’ll sleep for around 2 ½ to 3 hours in the morning. She normally wakes after 40 mins but will resettle herself if I pop her dummy back in. If we are going out, I usually get her up after the 40 mins.
From here, she’ll go back down about 12:30 – 1 pm ish and then have another 2 hours. If she’s only had the 40-minute nap, she generally only lasts an hour to an hour and a half before needing another nap.
She generally has a power nap around 4:30 pm for about 40 minutes before being ready to go to bed around 6:30 – 6:45 pm. Luckily she seems quite tired at bedtime as Austin doesn’t go to bed until 7 – 7:30ish and he gets pretty noisy at bathtime and the bathroom is next door to our bedroom where she is sleeping at the moment.
Feeding
I started the month combi feeding from the boob and then making bottles, but since I swapped to a faster flowing teat she’d rather just have bottles, so I’ve been expressing milk and then feeding her breast milk from a bottle and then also using formula.
She is fed at around 7 am, 11 am, 3 pm, 6 pm and 10:30 pm. She dropped her 2/3 am feed right at the beginning of the month and now goes through from her night feed at around 10:30 pm until 7 am which is lovely as it means I get the chance of a full night of sleep.
Nappies
She’s using size 2 and size 3 nappies. I find there’s quite a size difference between the different brands. Pampers seem to come up quite big, so we are using size 2 and then the other brands are smaller, so we are into size 3s. Using the size 3 nappies has made a massive difference to the poonamis. The size 3 nappies seem to contain them much better so I’m not having to strip car seats and cot bedding quite so often.
Mental Development
She’s very aware of her surroundings and turns to see people. She’s really interested in food and if I’m eating something she stares at it until the item is gone.
She’s started chatting a lot more and making a lot more noise. Sometimes at 3 am, she wakes up for a little chat. She’s really interested in flashing and moving toys and is quite happy to watch them and then interact with them.
We’ve started using our big bath rather than the baby bath. She’s not a big fan of the bath and often cries halfway through. So we keep bath time quite quick and only bathe her every other day.
Physical Development
She’s started blowing raspberries, particularly when she is annoyed about something. It’s quite funny.
She is very good at rolling from front to back and back to front. She’s got strong legs which allow her to kick herself over.
We’ve got the Jumperoo out of the loft and she really enjoys it. She’s good at jumping in it. Austin wasn’t the biggest fan. He would only stay in there for around 5 minutes and looked quite grumpy in there most of the time. She’s quite happy for a bit longer, although it clearly tires her out.
She’s starting to pull herself up to sitting positions from reclining. So if she’s laying on my legs she can pull herself upright. When she gets upright, she doesn’t know what to do so she just topples and I catch her.
I haven’t had her weighed this month, but I would imagine she’s well over a stone now. She’s starting to fill out and all of her 3 – 6 months clothes fit her. I’ve even had to put away some of the sleepsuits as she is too long for them now.
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