Rylan 5 Month Summary

Oh, my happy little boy! Rylan really seems to be growing up so fast, some part of me wishes he could stay this precious little baby forever. Having the experience of already having a baby has taken a lot of the pressure off this time around. You aren’t questioning every decision you make, or stressing about the little details like you did with the first. It’s quite a relief actually, and I find I’m truly able to enjoy Rylan at this stage.

This was a pretty exciting month for him. He went on his first plane ride down to Georgia to see my family (was excellent and slept most of the way), then was showered with attention once we got there. I feel bad that he might not be getting as much attention as he should when we are at home, but I guess most parents of multiple children feel that way. If he is starting to fuss, usually all it takes is for me to look at him and he breaks into a huge smile, like “Yay, you’re still here!”. I hope he’s just as easy to appease as the years go on!

Rylan is a determined little fella. I’ve called him my little snapping turtle since he was born, as he has a way of inflicting serious pain on any appendage he can get his mouth on. Most of the time he can be found with his two right fingers in his mouth, happily sucking away. He finds ways to grab a hold of things (hopefully toys) that I would have thought far out of his reach. The other day he grabbed Brandon’s cereal bowl and yanked it out of his hands. Not an easy task stealing cheerios from a 2-year old.

“Please share!”

Sleeping has been stellar. Still 12 hours a night and 3 naps. He’s super attached to his lovey and generally doesn’t cry at all as long as he can get his hands on him. He’s been rolling over from stomach to back for some months now, but found he had rolled from his back to his stomach in the night after waking him up one morning in GA. A side note for new parents – try not to freak when your baby does this the first time. If they are able to get to their stomach on their own, then they will be fine once they are there. Try and work with them being able to consistently get turned over to their backs during the daytime, so that they will have this ability (and you will have the reassurance that they can) during the night.

I totally stopped breastfeeding in the last couple of weeks. I had wanted to make it to 6 months, but it ended up being time for both of us. Rylan is a big boy and seems to get hungrier everyday. We’ve even taken to adding rice cereal to two of his bottles. He got some cereal on a spoon one morning while on vacation, and I will start him on more solids soon (much to the horror of my pediatrician – they strictly believe in waiting till 6 months). His reflux is rearing its ugly head again, and we are back to wearing bibs for most of the day, even after increasing his medicine dosage. It’s no fun – let’s just say I have a love/hate relationship with my washer dryer.