Max's first solids (or a really messy afternoon)

I will let the pictures speak for themselves but we all had a blast, including Max.  I think his favorite part was the bath at the end.  Dinner time will never be the same again!

Max's 5th month

In one week, my baby will be 6 months old.  I can't even begin to wrap my head around that.  Six months old.  And what a little boy he has become.  Or big boy, I should say.  He is over 16 pounds now.  He laughs all of the time.  Seriously.  He is such a happy little baby.  The picture of him with the huge smile on his face is one that I got from my (wonderful!!!) daycare provider.  It came with a text that said "Hi mom, I'm having a fun day.  Love you!"  It doesn't get much better than that.  He loves blowing raspberries, jumping and the word poop.  I am a little nervous that it might actually be his first word.  It cracks him up every time we say it, so we end up saying it a lot!  His sleeping habits have gotten drastically better.  He generally goes down around 7:30 or 8:00pm.  I am still nursing him and once in a while, he eats in the middle of the night but lately, he goes until 5:30am without eating.  He does usually wake up once or twice and needs me to put his pacifier back in but he has come such a long way from where we started.  He's also clearly ready for solids.  We wanted to wait until he was officially 6 months old to start but when I was out tonight, Damien gave him his usual 6 ounce bottle and Max wanted more and ended up taking 10 ounces total.  He loves to watch us eat and the last few days he has been smacking his little lips, almost like a little old man without his dentures.  He loves singing and loves to pull my hair.  That I can do without!

Here are some snapshots from the past month.  Each and everyday that passes I am more and more in love with my little family...

(apparently this is the month that Damien and I start exploring with putting things on Max's head...)

This is what a sick monkey looks like...

Friday Max turned 5 months old and we spent the day at the doctor's.  Well, not the day exactly but the morning at least.  It started on Thursday when I picked him up from daycare.  By the time I got home, he was running a fever of 101.8.  A few hours later, it was up to 103.5.  Not what any parents want to see, especially new ones.  A call to the doctor, a dose of baby Tylenol and a cool sponge bath later, we got it down to 102.5.  Max slept on me that night and his temperature was pretty consistent throughout the night, around 101.7.  By Friday morning, however, it was back up to 103.4.  We were at the doctor's by 10am and then off for a chest X-ray because he also had a persistent cough.  Now I don't know how many of you have had to watch/aid in your infant getting a chest X-ray but let me tell you, it was awful.  He had to sit in what looked to be a medieval torture device as I held his arms over his head.  Needless to say, he cried a lot.  So did I.  Luckily, his X-ray came back clear and he was diagnosed with an ear infection.  We started him on antibiotics yesterday and he is nearly back to normal today.  His fever broke at around midnight last night and by 2am, he was all smiles.  I even recorded him singing right around that time. 

Before Max got sick, I had wondered how I would really know when he was sick.  I have never been good at telling when someone felt warm and the idea of taking his temperature constantly just to check on him seemed a little excessive.  But let me tell you.  I knew.  From his glassy eyes, hot head, unwillingness to nurse from me, and overall demeanor, it was only a matter of minutes before I was sure that my little monkey was in fact, sick.  But just like everything else that has happened in the last 5 months, you just figure out what to do.  From cold compresses to obtaining a urine sample via a small bag, you just learn as you go how to be a parent.  And inevitably, you become a good one.  

Happy 5 months baby.