Marigold, Five Months

Marigold is 5 months old!

WEIGHT

17 lb 4 oz the day she turned 5 months old. That's the 88th percentile! Yes, I'm proud of every last ounce.

LENGTH

One day I will measure this and actually have this stat. But she's def long.

SLEEP
The TLDR version is I cannot predict this girl's sleep.

Naps are consistently getting longer, and we even had several days in a row where she reliably took 2 solid hour+ long naps. But then there are days where she just takes 30-minute naps all day long and it's crazy making. Those dinky-nap days seem to be happening less often, so let's hope she trending toward 2 solid naps a day, plus a catnap around dinner time. Because that seems to be more normal for a 5-month-old.

Nighttime sleep is usually one wake-up, sometimes no wake-ups, sometimes several wake-ups. No rhyme or reason to it as far as I can tell. And getting her to sleep for bedtime is quite the marathon. At least an hour of snuggles and nursing. If I try to put her down earlier than that, she just screams until I pick her up and start over so it's not worth it.

And the SNOO has lost it's magic because *I think* she's outgrown the need for the rocking motion to help her sleep. It will still occasionally rock her back to sleep, but more often then not, the escalating sound and motion just upsets her when it's supposed to be calming her. I've even turned the motion off altogether a few times and that actually helps her get back to sleep better. Safe to say, I think she's ready to transition out of it. Now we just have to transition Jude out of the crib to free that up for Marigold. Wish us luck!

FIRSTS THIS MONTH
-Blowing raspberries.
-Holding items and bringing them up to her mouth on her own.
-All the drooling and vinegary poops because teething (no teeth to show for it yet, though)
-Really getting her full chest off the ground during tummy time.
-Moving around more on the floor; wiggling around until she's facing a different direction.
-Rolling from belly to back just a few more times. Not the other direction though because she doesn't like being on her tummy much so why try?

NICKNAMES
Margo, Margs, Meergs, Margo-rita, The Silly Girl

OTHER THINGS TO NOTE
-Marigold does not like her carseat. This has been true since day 1, but it was officially proven true when I needed to take all three kids on a 1-hour round trip to a neighboring town on my own, and instead of napping in the car (because she was exhausted) she screamed/cried the whole ride, both ways. Hopefully she learns to love it over the next month (wishful thinking?) because we're going on a very long ride up to Rhode Island to visit my family at the end of September. Pray for us.

-I'm enjoying that she can stay up a little longer between naps, about 2 hours now. It's fun to have more awake time with our baby girl. We can actually get out of the house every once in a while! ;)

-Margs got a double ear infection this past month. It was pitiful! And can you believe it, it was the first ear infection we've ever had in our house! She had to take 2 weeks of amoxicillin, and the whole time I was drooling reminiscing about the delicious bubble gum flavor. Such a blast from the past! Meanwhile, Margo was not interested in it at all. She got REALLY good at spitting it out, no matter where I dropped it into her mouth. So then I would push it back in and she would spit a little more out and repeat repeat repeat until she at least got some of it. Thankfully, her ears are back to normal now. Here's hoping it was a one-time thing!

-My postpartum anxiety is still a thing. It's definitely better now that I'm on oral progesterone, but it's not gone and my worst time of day is the afternoon, no doubt. By the time lunch hits and for a few hours after, I'm at a low point. It's weird that it's so predictable, but I guess that's hormones for you! My friend, Emily, recommended a self-help book for anxiety, so I'm going to give that a go once the audio version is available from my library. The good news is that the oral progesterone has not affected my milk supply, so at least that's going well. :)

-Marigold is still getting nightly baths, which is new for us because we have always been once-a-week kid bathers in the past. But ever since she had some pretty gnarly acne at 2 months old that would not go away, and her ped recommended nightly bathing to get all the ickies off her skin, things have really cleared up. So she gets a luxurious nightly bath and she loves it! Even if she's cranky because she's overtired, she'll still calm down once she's in the water and enjoy herself while the bath lasts. One night I used her old soap (Honest Co soap, which is what we were using when she had her bad acne, so we switched to unscented Dove hoping it would help, and it did), and she broke out again the next day! Wow! Maybe it was a coincidence, but I don't think so. I went right back to using Dove and the acne cleared up within a few days. And I thought Honest Co. was supposed to be stripped down and "safe!" Suffice to say, this little lady has sensitive skin! 

-Speaking of her sensitive skin, she's also way more prone to diaper rash than my boys were. If we skip the diaper cream for just one diaper change, she will have a red, turning-rashy bummy by the next diaper change. It's wild! So she gets diaper cream lathered on like cream cheese at every change. And while I've always liked Boudreaux's Butt Paste, I've found that Triple Paste works way better for her hyper-sensitive skin. Clears it up and keeps it rash free all day every day. Now you know.

^^Queen Margo says, "I am merely putting up with these kisses."

-At 5 months old, Marigold is transitioning out of 3-6 month-old clothes! I just pulled out all the 6-9 month clothes that I borrowed from my SIL (we were able to swap baby clothes since we each just had a baby of the opposite gender as our first(s)!). And it's always bittersweet to pull out a new, larger wardrobe. Sad because you're putting way all these clothes that you've come to know and love, that have defined her style of the past few months. Happy because it's a sign that she's growing and thriving and it's fun to play dress up with new outfits!

-Our knuckles are her favorite chew toy. She must be working hard on teeth because all she wants to do is gnaw on our fingers! It's hilarious to watch her ATTACK them. She will lean her whole body forward with mouth wide open if she thinks she has a chance of latching on to your finger.

-Margo loves it when we sing her her. Her face lights up! I hope she always loves it, though I'm pretty sure all kids go through a, "NO! DON'T SING, MOM!" phase. Jude is in it right now. So while I'm singing to Marigold, he's demanding that I not sing, and John Paul is singing along. Yes, we are a circus.

-Marigold has her own emoji, as determined by my husband: 🐣.