Month FIVE was eventful, emotional, fun and filled with smiles, coos and laughter. I am completely over the moon for this sweet baby boy. Harrison’s the absolute best baby I could’ve ever imagined, and then some. He has grown a lot since month four and he’s an all-around healthy, happy, lovely little guy. Enjoy the photos!
Month five started at home in early January as I began my last few weeks at home before starting back to work. We had a few beautiful, sunny, crisp days that had us going for fun walks in the afternoons.
Harrison started on more of a sleep and eat routine in the past month and it has gone really well. We began spacing out his feedings even more, going from about eight times per day (including overnights) to five feedings and then to four. He took to this so easily that I wish I’d have done it sooner instead of letting him snack all day. The best part about this is that we were able to drop the overnight feeding completely.
That brings me to him sleeping through the night. It was pretty hard for a couple of nights (I did sit outside his door two nights in a row) but after less than 10 minutes he was starting to settle down and asleep again soon after. He now will often have a wake-up between four and five in the morning but we watch and listen on the monitor, and he just needs a few minutes to put himself to sleep. There was one night around ten at night that he began crying in a way that wasn’t normal. We went upstairs quickly, Sean picked him up and Harrison let out an enormous burp! It’s truly amazing how you know your baby’s different cries.
Month 5 was also when we stopped swaddling him. We’d done kind of a transition – during naps, we’d leave one arm out. He kept getting out of the swaddle at night and it was waking him (and us) up, so we decided to try the sleep sack instead. He did so well. Again, I wish we’d have just started it sooner but thought it would be a much bigger deal. I do miss my little burrito baby – he was so sweet curled up in the swaddle. But I love seeing him sleep with hands up by his head – also adorable. <3
Naps are a bit harder. Harrison still likes to take his longest nap in the morning, but as we are cutting back on afternoon naps and finding that he just doesn’t need a fourth nap anymore, we’re learning that his longest nap really should be his second or afternoon nap. We’re making progress to keep the first nap to 90 minutes, but if we know we have a busy afternoon out, we will let him go to 2 hours for a bit of extra rest. Some days he will go almost 2 hours in the afternoon, usually from 12.30ish to 2.30ish. I’d ideally like this nap to start at 1 and go until 3. We are working on it – he needs to be able to stay up longer after first nap and isn’t there yet. His third nap has been another change – it used to be longer but now he takes it (on average) around 5 and we usually limit it to 30 minutes so we can start bedtime routine between 7 and 7.30.
In mid-January, Harrison had his four-month check and weighed in at 16 pounds (70th percentile), 26.75 inches long (92nd percentile), and was in the 50th percentile for head circumference. He is a big baby, for sure! I’m 5’2″ and Sean is 5’8″ so we are thinking he’s getting his height from his tall grandparents – my mom, her dad and her half-siblings are all tall, and Sean’s dad and his side of the family are taller, too.
On January 16, Uncle Tyler and Aunt Kym came to visit for a whole week! We had an absolutely blast – read more about Tyler and Kym’s visit to Atlanta – and it was incredible to see my brother and sis-in-law fall in love with my baby boy. He and Kym had a special connect and Harrison gave his Uncle Tyler is first (and to this day the BIGGEST) laughs. It was so, so special and made my heart so happy.
The week before I went back to work I took Harrison to midtown to visit Daddy at this office before his leave started. It was nice to see so many familiar faces, and friends. When we got home, Harrison was hungry and tired but just could not settle into his crib for a nap. I ended up holding him in the glider for almost an hour so he could sleep. Right or wrong, I hadn’t done that much of that in my maternity leave – usually I would set him down after a time. It seemed completely fitting that it was during my last days at home with him. <3
I felt very emotional the last days of my leave and it was a big stress on us. 🙁 It helped that I knew Sean would be home with Harrison and that he was really looking forward to his leave and bonding time. It was actually really easy to leave the house on Monday morning, with my son playing happily with his equally happy father. I ended up being ready to be back at work and am so far enjoying it very much.
Overall, Harrison continues to be an amazing little baby. He brings us happiness, smiles and laughter, and he seems to truly love to be around other people, having adventures with mom and dad, and get cuddles and kisses from his fluffy sisters.
For me, month five was really, really emotional and I am so thankful for this boy’s love and sweetness. I’m definitely getting used to my new life but I cannot imagine it without Harrison. He is the most incredible thing in the world.
