5 months!

(This is clearly old, but I never published it.)

Peter is 5 months old today! What a great baby. I just love him. :-)

He typically sleeps straight from 10pm-7am now! We put him to bed just after Kristen and James are in bed, then I feed him before we go to sleep, usually around 9:30, and put him right back down to sleep for the rest of the night. During the day he still sleeps between each feeding which is every three hours. (aiming for 7am, 10, 1pm, 4, 6:30, 9:30pm). His naps have been longer after the first feeding, and in the afternoon, and it's harder to get him to sleep in the early evening, but he'll usually fall asleep in the swing (where I put him so I can make dinner.)

It didn't come naturally to him to sleep through the night though! At 3 1/2 months, he was waking only once a night before we went to New Jersey. Travel to the east coast plus 5 time zones equals a mess, when it comes to babies anyway. We were there for 10 days and when we came home he was waking 2-3 times a night. Over the next ten days (before everyone came for Christmas), thankfully he got back to only once a night. Over New Year's Eve weekend, Josh had 4 days off, so we used that time to let Peter cry it out. The first night, I fed him at 10pm and put him down. Peter woke up around 2:30am and cried for an hour. Josh went in to comfort him, he settled, then started crying again. After 30 more minutes of crying, I fed him, then he went back to sleep. Night 2, he cried for an hour, Josh comforted him, he settled, then he cried a little more but went back to sleep without nursing. Night 3 he woke up and cried, but not like before, then went back to sleep. He still wakes sometimes at night and fusses, but goes back to sleep after a minute or two. He also wakes up early sometimes, like between 4-6am fussing, but goes back to sleep without nursing. He's in the pack n play in the office for now, until we think the boys won't wake each other up. The best night on record so far is sleeping from just before 9pm-7:25am. But that was only once. :-)

Peter is such a happy little guy. Chubby too. :-) If you smile at him, he will smile back. And he loves to laugh at Kristen and James. They are definitely the best at getting him to giggle. He loves to watch everything going on around. He can now roll over both ways (tummy to back by 4 months, back to tummy about a week ago). He can kind of sit up too, but it doesn't last super long. He leans way forward, then topples to the side. And when he's in his carseat, he totally tries to sit up all the time, leaning forward.

And when we were at the beach this afternoon, he decided to put sand in his face for the first time. He handled it really well though, which is good since I'm sure it won't be the last time.