Happy Five Month Birthday Huxley

Wow, five months old already. Here's a recap of his accomplishments in month five.

Crying for attention: He may have been doing this for a while and I just now noticed. I realized yesterday that he was doing this when as soon as I arrived at his crib he started to smile, bounce around, and reach his arms up towards me. He's manipulative already.

Rolling over: He's able to roll from back to front, and just today he muscled his arm out from underneath him so he could roll over, push up, and look around.

Reaching/Grabbing: He grabs anything he can get his hands on. He especially likes to reach for your face, earrings, necklace, plates, and knives. Yesterday he even tried to grab Spike.

Babbling: He's learned some new sounds this month like razzing. He loves the sound of his own voice and likes to lay in his crib or his playmat and scream as loud as he can.

Sleeping: Since the introduction of cereal, Huxley sleeps for 11 hours at night before waking. This is when he will actually eat his cereal. If he refuses, we are looking at an eight or nine hour stretch.

Cereal: At the beginning of the month he took his first bite of cereal, and he didn't really like it. It's taken a month, but I think he's starting to get the hang of it. As an added bonus, he doesn't cry whenever he sees the spoon anymore. Perhaps, next month we'll try something new.

Naps: He's down from four naps to three naps. He dropped his evening catnap and has decided to take some longer naps during the day.

Toys: He's taste tested all of his toys. For the most part, they all tasted like plastic.

So what's next.....

Sitting: When you pull him to a sitting position he will straighten up his back and look around.

Bearing weight on the legs: The exersaucer has really helped with this. He's already starting to bear some weight on those chubby legs.

Eating the toes: He likes to throw his legs up in the air whenever I change his diaper. Everytime they get a little higher and higher. It's only a matter of time before he grabs on of his feet and puts it in his mouth....where he puts everything else.

Holding his bottle: Mostly, his hands just get in the way now that he realizes he has hands. When he does hold the bottle, he will try to pull the bottle out of his mouth and put it back in his mouth. This only leads to frustration and tears.

Chasing the dogs: Well, maybe that won't happen this month, but I'm sure it will soon. He has a couple of stuffed puppies and the only thing he will do with them is find their ears and stick them in his mouth. I wonder if he'll do that to Buffy and Spike when he's mobile? Spike probably won't let him get that close, but I'm sure Buffy will let him.

The giggles

So, what makes a little five month old laugh?

• Whisker tickles
• Being tickled on his belly
• Having his diaper changed
• Being bounced on a knee
• Sometimes he laughs when you talk to him

Here's a video of him having the giggles...

He Rolled Over!

I'm a little late with this post.   Huxley actually rolled over a week and a half ago.  The official date of his milestone is 5/16.  

For a few weeks prior to the big event, he had been rolling to one side but never making it over.  I noticed he rolled over after putting him down for a nap.  He was being very quiet on the baby monitor so I figured he fell asleep, but not so.  He was secretly working on flipping himself over.  I heard him start to cry, and when I checked on him he was laying on his belly with one arm twisted underneath himself.  

Later that day he continued working on his new trick.  He'd roll over.  I'd throw him on his back, and he'd roll right over again.  He did this for about thirty minutes before he grew tired. 

Since the day he officially rolled over, he hasn't been quite as excited about rolling over, but he will do it occasionally.    A few nights back I went in his room to check on him before heading off to sleep and found him on his belly with his legs stuck through the crib.  I gently tried to put his legs back through the crib and set him on his back.  It didn't work.  He kept waking up, swinging his legs through the crib slats, and rolling onto his belly with one arm twisted underneath his body.  He finally agreed to just lay on his side.  That worked for, oh, a couple of hours.  

Fun Facts about Huxley

A few fun tidbits about our little guy

Ounces he devours:   7 ounces per feeding

Number of feeding:   5-6 feedings per day

Clothing size he's in: 6-9 months and 12 month clothing

Diaper Size:  Size 3

Nickname:    Chubs

Favorite toy: Mr. Star, burp cloths (both very edible), and the exersaucer.

Favorite book:   The Jungle Book - his face just lights up when he sees the pictures giraffes, zebras, and elephants.  

Favorite Nursery Rhyme:  Hickory Dickory Dock.  I do a little game with him when I say this rhyme and his face just lights up.

Number of Naps: (too few!)  3-4 naps lasting 30-45 minutes.  Occasionally he'll surprise me with an hour nap.

Bedtime:  7pm

Bedtime Ritual:  Listens to lullabies while be rocked and drifts off to sleep with a bottle.

A running tally

We've come a long way from the days when his biggest accomplishment was pooping 6 times in a day.  He does so much more than eat, sleep, and poop.  It was nice when he would have a three hour nap.  Now, I'm lucky if he'll take a 45 minute nap.  There's so much more for him to do and so much more that he is able to do.  Below is a list of Huxley's accomplishments.  

• Babbles:   He could babble for hours.  He has three modes of babbling: really happy babbling, angry babbling, and regular babbling.  When he's really happy, the babbling is very high pitched and when he's angry it's a whiny babble.  There's a video at the bottom of this post of his angry babbling.

• Reaches for toys:  He will grab hold of the toys in his play mat and won't release his grip until he gets the toy off of its hook.   He uses his hulk-like grip to tear the toy down.  Once he has the toy in his slobbery hands it immediately goes in the mouth, just like everything else. 

• Clasps his hands:   He's realized he has not one but two hands.  He often clasps them together and plays with them like he's some kind of evil mastermind plotting his next move.    

• Sleeps through the night:  This one I don't think he's mastered too well, but he knows how to do it.  He has weeks where he wants to be up every hour from 1am onward and other weeks where he'll sleep for 8-11 hours. 

• Smiles:  He smiles all the time.  All you have to do is start talking to him and he'll get a huge grin across his face.

• Laughs:  Yesterday he burst into giggles when I was changing his diaper.  I'm not sure what was so funny.  If you tickle his chest or belly he'll erupt into laughter.  It's really quite cute.  

• Squealing:  This goes along with laughing.  If you really get him going, he'll squeal, also very cute but what isn't.
  

So what is the little guy currently working on mastering?....

• Sitting up: he's doing pretty well at this but will tumble forward and put his head in his lap.  I use a boppy to assist with his sitting exercises.

• Going to sleep without help from a bottle:  He's doing great with this and with very little crying.  He mostly talks himself to sleep.

• Rolling over:   He's getting close.  I estimate that he'll be rolling over by the end of this month.  I think I'll walk into his room in the morning or after a nap and find him laying on his belly.

• Getting his feet in his mouth:  Every day he hikes his feet up a little higher.  He gets the most practice during diaper changes.  He tries to help by throwing his legs and butt in the air.  Supposedly getting his feet in his mouth is a six month milestone.  I don't think he'll have a problem making this one.  

• Head/Shoulder/Arm Development:  This is still a work in progress since he's got such a huge noggin.  Everyday I throw him on his belly and make him do push ups.  Then I tickle him.  I'm cruel, but he likes it.

Here's the video of his angry babbling...

First Cereal Feeding

We got the okay and big push from the pediatrician to start cereal.  When I told the pediatrician how much he ate on a daily basis, her eyes got wide, and she said he really needed to start cereal.  I was more than happy to start him on cereal, because I've heard babies sleep longer once they start solids...  I am all for that.

Yesterday evening we had our first go at it.  Click here to see a video of his very first bites of cereal.  

He doesn't seem to like the taste of the cereal.  I haven't tasted it myself, but Jason said it smelled like urine.  Poor Huxley.  

I was surprised to see how well he did eating.  He didn't push the spoon out with his tongue, although he did push most of the cereal out.  Today he even made nasty faces after pushing the cereal out.  He also does a good job of opening his mouth for the spoon.  

Hopefully tomorrow the cereal will taste better, but probably not.

New Toy!!!

Huxley got a new toy yesterday, a reccomendation from the pediatrician.  She noticed he couldn't really bear weight on his legs and suggested an exerasaucer to help build his leg muscles and work off those chubby little legs.

After the appointment, we immediately set out to buy an exersaucer and had it assembled within minutes.  Well, not minutes, but it didn't take long.  

Huxley absolutely loves his exersaucer.  His feet can barely touch the bottom, but he likes the feel of standing.  The only thing he doesn't like about his new toy is that it is really difficult to get those darns toys in his mouth.  

For more pictures of Huxley enjoying his exersaucer, visit our photo gallery.  

Huxley's 4 Month Stats

His four month check-up came quickly.  Below are the stats from his check-up.

Weight:  18 lbs, 2.4 oz - 93rd percentile

Length - 26 inches - 80th percentile

Head Circumference - 43 inches - 66th percentile

The check-up helped to reassure us that he is on track.  Unfortunately, he did have a round of vaccines which has caused him to have a slight fever and get a case of the grumps.  Hopefully our happy bouncing boy will reappear tomorrow.  

His next check-up and round of vaccines will be at six months.  Below is a rundown of what the pedatrician will be checking for in two months.  Many of these things Huxley is already doing:

• Babbles
• Sits with help and balances
• Grasps rattle and mouths it
• Recognizes parents
• Transfers a small object from one hand to the other
• Smiles, Laughs, Squeals
• Turns towards sounds
• Comforts self without assitance from adult or pacifier