Nadia turns 5 months old on March 20th– we celebrated with a walk through the fan!
Each month gets better. More and more I realize she’s not a newborn, and that makes me feel both excited and sad. It’s weird, but I already miss the newborn days. No real “big events” this month, besides St. Patrick’s Day fun at daycare and celebrating grandpa’s birthday.
It feels like we finally found our stride as a family (well a family with two parents who work) and that feels really nice. Weekday morning still feel like a sprint to get out of the door– but we manage. Lately Nadia wakes up most mornings around 5:30 and I nurse her half-asleep in bed until my alarm goes off. It’s honestly one of my favorite parts of the day– seeing her big smile as I pick her up makes me feel so good! Once I’m out of bed it feels like a rush to pump, eat, dress for work and do all the Nadia things. I sometimes feel guilty, but honestly enjoy being at work. I love being a mom AND I love that part of my life that doesn’t revolve around my child. I think my dream balance would be working more like 30 hours so that I could have a little more time to catch up on household tasks and do some things for myself.
Onto Nadia– here are some of the highlights:
-Nadia now giggles! She doesn’t laugh very often, but when she does it absolutely melts my heart. She loves being kissed (or when I pretend her stuffed animal is kissing her) and that often starts the giggles!
-She loves to touch her feet. I totally understand how the “happy baby” pose got its name. Nadia loves rolling around on her back and picking up her feet.
-Everything is a chew toy– I can’t feel any teeth, but I’m pretty darn sure that she is teething. She has a few toys that she loves to chew and she drools like crazy. She’s still not into pacifiers at home, but sometimes we offer during dinner. Lately, she just chews the side–I guess it’s whatever works!
-She loves music. I guess this has always been true, but Nadia loves hearing Daniel play guitar or when we sing. She loves playing with little rattles. I hope this never changes.
-She is such a good sleeper! Most mornings she wakes around 5-6am, which is awesome. My alarm goes off at 6 on work days, so truly I can’t complain. Being at daycare especially seems to wear her out, and most nights she’s itching to go to sleep by 7 or 7:30. Honestly, last night she was fussing a lot while nursing, so I tried to put her down. Within two minutes she was sleeping. What a girl! She still sleeps next to me in her bassinet and usually sleeps through the night. I’m not ready for her to move into the crib, so I think she will graduate to the pack-n-play next month.
-We’re still nursing– and wow, sometimes it gets weird! It is totally a different ball-game than nursing a newborn. She gets so distracted that I can’t listen to my podcasts anymore and since I’m taking a break from social media, I just have stare at my sweet baby or read a book. Sometimes that feels hard for me. She also has a new thing where she likes to take a break while nursing to blow raspberries on my boob. The closeness is both amazing and frustrating as can be! I daydream about weaning her so I don’t have to pump at work or whip my boob out 24/7, yet I also realize I will miss it when our journey ends. Oh, I did a bad thing and ate cake with whipped cream this month– big mistake. Nadia definitely still has a cow-milk allergy… and that flare up took a week to clear 🙁
-She really loves her vitamin D drops– that’s Daniel’s part of the bedtime routine. Nadia opens her mouth and gets excited when he pulls out the bottle.
Well, I suppose that’s it. I want to pinch myself most days, I feel so lucky to be Nadia’s mom.
