"The Honeymoon is Over"

So apparently, the honeymoon is over according to AskDr.Sears.com. Ummm...wait, there was a honeymoon? Where? When? How the heck did we miss that? That's right, according to Dr. Sears, Julian should have been sleeping pretty well up till now and was probably a perfect little angel: "most babies sleep fairly well between one and four months of age, but now the honeymoon is over! Beginning around four months of age, baby may start waking up much more frequently at night. " Most nights, it isn't really possible for him to wake up more often. When he is awake it sometimes takes an hour of nursing, bouncing, rocking, shushing, and more nursing to get him back to sleep. Well, I guess we have to chalk it up to Julian not really fitting into the "most babies" category. Think square peg, round hole. A few weeks ago he actually fell asleep in the car seat for 2 hours, earning him the short-lived nickname "someone else's baby". We were so perplexed and excited that we just kept driving around. Luckily we live so close to Red Rocks and there is never a paucity of beautiful sights to see.

Julian is TEETHING!!! He has been for 3 months now. Call me a dreamer, call it wishful thinking, but I really think we're making some progress. The two little bottom teeth have been bulging for quite some time but his gums are really mushy and they seem to hurt most of the day and night. Please teeth, just come in already.

We are very close to giving Julian solids. We are going to be using a feeding philosophy called Baby-Led Weaning (BLW) but that's a subject for a different post ;). When in doubt, check Wikipedia. He has been reaching for and lunging at our food for over a month now. He also mimics "chewing" while watching us eat, sits very well unassisted, opens his mouth REALLY wide hoping some of our food will magically end up in there, and has a good pincer grasp. Since he has tummy issues, we are in no hurry to introduce solids, but since we are following his lead (hence, baby-led), it may happen sooner than we wanted it to. In the beginning, most babies usually end up playing with the food more than eating it and more food ends up on the floor than in their tummies. We are pretty excited about Julian being able to share mealtime with us, explore food, and make a HUGE mess!

Julian was 5 months old on January 18th. Where has the time gone??? Most people comment that he is "big for his age" and our neighbor even calls him "Bruiser". So - decide for yourself. Here are his 5 month specs:

Weight: 16lbs, 8oz
Length: 26.5in
Head Circumfrence: 18in

According to the infant growth calculator at justmommoies.com he is 50-75% for weight, 75-90% for length, and >97% for head circumference. At least he is consistent - especially his head. It has been huge since the beginning. It is so big that at first we were amazed that he could even hold it up for any length of time. Is head circumference directly proportional to intelligence? I digress....

Anyway - Julian is animated as ever and is a veritable chatterbox. He is repeating sounds and now loves to say da da da da da da da da ....ad infinitum, varying pitch and volume with mood. He is extremely expressive, at times yelling to signal that he is "all done". Speaking of signs, he has recognized "milk" for quite some time, and now responds to "all done" as well. We have been using the "potty" sign since the beginning but the jury is still out on that one....

What else...oh yeah. Julian puked in Brian's mouth while Brian was giving him an airplane. Bulls-eye, hole in one. Wish I could have seen it. I only witnessed the aftermath, but I guess that was funny enough. Ahhh, the joys of parenthood.


BTW, that first picture is just what it looks like (Julian catching Brian and I off guard and lunging at a funnel cake at 4 months - Xmas eve). He really went for it! Yes, I ate funnel cake. Yes it tasted good. Yes, it sat in my stomach like a brick. Yes I almost saw the funnel cake again in the middle of the night. No, I will not be eating anymore funnel cake. No, funnel cake was not Julian's first food...but it almost was. Below is a picture of Julian enjoying the scenery at Mt. Charleston.