Month Five

     So many things happened this month. (Obviously I'm talking about November, not this last month, because I can't get things together enough to post about one month of Abby's life once a month... cause I'm crazy, and lazy, and busy, and exhausted, you name it, I feel it). Anywhos, this month was kinda crazy.

     First things first, Abby was super sick again. So, I ended up calling the advice line and taking her down to the doctor to check it out. She said she had some congestion and gave me some antibiotics for Abby to take. She called a few days later to check in on Abby, and things were fine. But the next morning... Abby decided to explode everywhere, her diaper that is. She had so much diarrhea, which wouldn't normally have been a problem for me, except that it was getting EVERYWHERE! I couldn't control it. No matter what I did, it would get all over Abby and anything she was near to. So it meant not only cleaning her little body, but everything else around her as well. We had many trips straight to the bathtub for a cleaning rather than trying to use the little wipeys. Oi! 

     Then, my mom got married.... while Abby was still having a serious case of diarrhea, and she was to wear a super cute little dress.... in cream. Great! The whole entire wedding, my worst fear was that she would explode, even worse, that it would happen while I was carrying her down the aisle while 150 people stared at me. Thankfully those fears were not realized. Abby was a little trooper the few days leading up to the wedding as weather conditions forced the wedding inside and we all had to scramble to re-plan/design everything in a few hours. Everything turned out beautifully and we are all very glad that mom is now married to a super great guy. When we got home from the wedding Grant suggested maybe using bigger diapers for Abby..... duh! Why hadn't I thought of that! It did help with the diarrhea, to a point. She went up to a size 1-2. 

Growing:

       Oh, how you've grown little girl. You are laughing and smiling so much. It is so much fun to watch you. When we had lunch with Aunt Beeb, she was pretty impressed at your skills of putting your pacifier back in your mouth by yourself. I have to say, that's been pretty awesome for me. Now, when we're driving and you start crying, usually you just grab your pacifier on your own. I don't have to pull the car over anymore to give it to you. 

     The most impressive thing this month that you have learned to do is turn over! That's right! I will never forget Halloween day because you turned your little body over all by yourself! It just happened so quickly. I was so excited and I told your daddy as soon as I saw him that morning and he said, "oh, yeah, she did that this morning." Mommy was less that thrilled that you finally turned over and 1. Mommy missed it, and 2. Daddy witnessed it and didn't tell Mommy. I explained that if anything like that every happened again that Daddy must call Mommy right away to let her know so I can come running to your side and cheer you on! 

     It only took a few days before you were turning back over onto your back as well. I was pretty much in shock at how quickly you were learning the whole rolling over thing! The hilarious thing my dear, is that you still weren't super thrilled with being on your belly, so every time you would roll onto your belly, you would begin to whine. The length began to widen each time you turned over as you began to realize that it wasn't so awful to be on your belly, especially when you learned how to roll back over onto your back. 

Sleeping:

     I pretty much revolted against your habit of waking up several times a night to feed. I had had enough. So I asked any Mommy-Friend I could for advice about what to do. One great friend, M, suggested that I get you out of Mommy and Daddy's room and into your own room asap. I decided I would go ahead with this because I wanted to get your room cleaned out anyway, and this would give me a great reason to get my butt into gear to do it. Also, I was willing to do anything to try to get you to sleep a little longer between each feeding, and maybe we were waking you up whenever we turned over. I decided to wait until after mom's wedding to start. To begin this transition, I would put you in your own room when you went to bed, then when you woke up to eat, I would put you in the bassinet in our room for the rest of the night. At first, there wasn't really any change, but slowly it began to pay off. You were still getting up two times at night, but I think it was good to begin to transition you into your own room.

You were sleeping with your feet in the air, super cute!

Eating:

     Good news! At our four month check up with the doctor, she gave the go-ahead to begin baby cereal. Because I didn't have any on hand, and forgot to get some while down in Bako for the appointment, I didn't start you on it right away. Thankfully, Mommy's friend had a bunch and gave me some to get you started. Towards the end of the month we started you on rice cereal, and you loved it! You were pretty much upset with me because I couldn't shovel the stuff into your mouth fast enough. You were leaning into it to try and help me. Needless to say it was pretty much a disaster the first time you ate. 

     You made such a mess (you insisted on holding the spoon yourself and would then proceed to put your hand in the cereal and then everywhere else); I was starting to get frustrated at first because the only place to feed you where you would be upright was your car seat and I didn't want you to get it dirty. But then, I gave myself a reality check and remembered that this would be the only first meal you'd ever have, and messy or not, I should just enjoy this time. We could always take a bath, which we promptly did right after you were finished eating. I ended up taking all your clothes off so that you wouldn't get you clothes all messy too, and I moved you to your bouncer. In most of the pictures you look a little crazy because of the flash on the camera. (I always have a hard time capturing pictures of you for that reason). 

     You ate every 3-4 hours during the day and eat several tablespoons of rice cereal at night before bed. It didn't really make much of a difference on sleep either. You still got up every few hours to feed. 

The main picture shows Abby with her new aunties at Mom & Willie's wedding