5 Months Old!

Siena at a Glance:

• 16 pounds, wearing 9 month clothes
• size 3 diapers, about 6 a day. 
• eyes are still glassy blue, but I can see yellow flecks in the sun.  I'll be shocked if her eyes don't eventually change to brown. After all, Korean blood runs thick.  
• starting to exert her will (for example, throws a fit if we don't let her pull the leaves off of plants or turn the pages in the hymnal.)
• still exclusively breastfed.
• suddenly stopped spitting up so much. yay!
• able to roll from back to belly, and belly to back.
• takes 3 decent naps a day- 9ish, 1ish, and 4ish.  although by blogging that I probably just jinxed it.
• bedtime is around 7 or 7:30pm. 
• starting to recognize words.  I say "doggy friends" and she looks up, expecting to see her doggy mobile. 
• starting to show mild stranger anxiety, especially around men with beards. 
• at about 4 months, she stopped sleeping through the night and wakes up at 3am starving. kinda bummed, but I'm enjoying the precious time I get to spend with her in the middle of the night :)
• at least for now, she's a bit of a loner- content to play on her belly with a few toys most of the day. 
• easily overwhelmed in crowds.
• nothing makes her laugh more than Pesto and Basil. 

My Latest Read:  I'm reading this incredibly loooooong book by Australia's "baby whisperer" (Lacey, you'll appreciate that!)  called The Dream Baby Guide.  It's not your typical sleep book with some quick fix.  It's about completely changing the way you communicate with your baby.  So, instead of always asking Siena, "Should we change your diaper?  Is it time for milk?  Do you want mama to pick you up? Is it time for another nap?" I should be leading her through simple statements that fill her in on what's to come, like, "Say bye bye to toys, nearly time to change your diaper and then get ready for night night!"  I realized that because I often lack confidence in my mom skills, I always ask Siena to guide me.  She's young right now so it's ok, but down the road it could become a problem.  In just a few days of changing my tone, gestures and speech, she's eating better and not trying to roll away as much during diaper changes.

When I first started reading, I was so skeptical that babies can even understand all this.  But then I realized that these are the same strategies, more or less, used by my dog trainer!  He told me Pesto's aggression stemmed from the fact that he thought he was in charge of the household, and that's a huge burden for a dog to carry.  Our trainer gave us lots of rules- Pesto shouldn't sleep with us, he should walk through doorways after us, he should always heel and never pull on the leash during walks, always wait to eat his food until we gave him the ok to dig in, and we should never have to ask him to do something twice. I was amazed that in a few weeks, Pesto was a new dog.  Far from perfect, but at least not biting and growling!  If dogs can respond to these changes, babies certainly can too.  I'm only halfway through, but I highly recommend this book!  All the sleep information is at the very end of this massive book.  She did that on purpose, because her point is that if your baby is clingy, anxious, and impatient during the day, it's unreasonable to expect them to peacefully fall asleep in their dark room all alone.  I love her holistic approach to sleep.  Ok, baby just woke up, gotta go!

* edit: After re-reading this, I realized it might come off the wrong way. Just want to clarify that we won't be training Siena like a dog or never let her have her own opinion or choice about things. We just want her to trust that we're the parents and she can relax and be the baby!