5 months!!!

Olivia was five months old yesterday! Time continues to fly by! I took her to the doctor's office to weigh her and she was 16 lbs, 7 ounces. She gained a pound in a month, and is on track to double her birth weight by six months. (She needs to reach 17 lbs, 2 ounces. No problem!)

I'm happy to note that Olivia was feeling MUCH better today. She took three good naps (45 minutes, 1 hour, and 45 minutes!!! Those are LONG for her!) and had a sunny disposition all day.

Olivia is sitting on her own in a tripod position for longer and longer amounts of time (still measured in seconds). She is grabbing for her pacifier when it falls out and can sometimes put it back in her mouth (maybe 30% of the time). She is trying to pull herself up from laying down, and can pull her self up from leaning back. Olivia continues to try to talk; sometimes it comes out as screaming, sometimes as vowel sounds, sometimes as "ga" or "goo" or "aga". She is a happy morning baby, loves the dogs when they misbehave, loves grabbing Ringo's fur (which, thankfully, he tolerates), loves when I act like an idiot (which, I will do for her anytime to make her smile--jumping up and down, laughing with my hands in the air, clapping, etc.). Olivia continues to do pretty well drinking water from a sippy cup, and she loves water! She is always trying to grab my glass. I let her have a drink sometimes, but she isn't quite as good at the glass. Olivia still isn't really into her rice cereal, and I suspect it is because I have to put Nutramigen in it. Against the rules of many people, but within the AAP's guidelines, I have started Olivia on other fruits and vegetables. (There was a study that showed that even if you start fruit before veggies, it doesn't make them more likely to have a sweet tooth or be a picky eater and not eat their veggies.) So, now Olivia has had rice cereal, bananas (the Gerber puree and just raw bananas pureed--she likes the fresh better), and sweet potatoes (the Gerber puree). Sweet potatoes are thus far her favorite.

I had said that I was going to "get the pacifier away from her" by the time she is six months old, but I now see the error in my ways. For a while there, she was only using it while she slept, but now that she is teething, Olivia is using it all the time. We'll just have to see... I have to admit that I bought some 6-18 month pacifiers...