Five Months Old

I cannot believe that in one more month, Charlotte will be halfway to the 1 year mark. Time definitely goes by faster with two kids. We are having a blast watching Charlotte learn new things and love all the attention that Claire gives her.

At 5 months old, Charlotte:

• is a rolling machine. She rarely stays on her back for long and diaper changes are becoming more challenging every day.
• has decided that rolling over onto her tummy to sleep is preferred. She started this about a week ago and we fought it for the first couple of days before eventually giving up. We would roll her onto her back and within minutes she was back on her tummy.
• is done with swaddling...we had a little scare a couple of weeks ago when she managed to flip onto her tummy with her arms still swaddled in (the girl is strong). After that, we packed the swaddle away and broke out the sleep sack. The transition went surprisingly well.
• still refuses to sleep through the night. She goes down between 7:00-7:30pm and usually sleeps until 7:00am, waking up once to eat. On a good night she makes it until about 4:30am...on a bad night it is more like 2:00am. It's frustrating, but I am finding that I am much more tolerant the second time around.
• can sit up for small periods of time (probably about a minute). She is still pretty wobbly and hunches forward quite a bit.
• has a contagious little belly laugh.
• loves her big sister. The moment Claire comes over to give her kisses and hugs, Charlotte's face lights up and a smile crosses her face. I keep crossing my fingers that they will be good friends.
• is starting to get a little more particular about who holds her...maybe a little touch of stranger anxiety (although no where near as bad as Claire had it).
• loves to grab and reach for things. Her hand-eye coordination has really developed over the last month.
• has cheeks that continue to grow bigger by the week. I absolutely love them!! :)
• loves being held and cuddled. I am really going to miss when she grows out of this stage.

Charlotte, you are a great addition to our family and we are so happy to have you!