5 months old!

Jackson is 5 months + 1 day old!

And he is a happy, smiley, hysterical, FUN baby...when he is awake.

Asleep, it's a whole other ballgame!

He loves to sit up in the boppies:

And is starting to sit up on his own, at least for a few seconds

before he topples over. :)

He'll be SUCH a happy boy when he can sit up on his own without falling over!

He weighs about 16 pounds, according to the "weigh myself, then stand

on the scale holding Jack and subtract the two numbers" method.

WHY won't this child sleep???? After sleeping 8:30 PM-4:30 AM by around 2 months, and then 8 PM-7 AM at 3 months, WHY are we back to waking every few hours at night? Why, why?

I'm not feeding him in the night; I'm not about to go backwards, and plus he doesn't need it. But he wakes up every few hours and has to have the pacifier to go back to sleep. He's still swaddled, so I thought maybe he wanted to be unswaddled to suck on his fists. Well, one arm out makes no difference, and unswaddled completely is just a nightmare.

I moved the swing up to his room, but it doesn't help him stay asleep for naps, so I haven't even tried it at night. I. AM. EXHAUSTED. Because guess who it is who gets up every few hours when Jack cries to stick the paci back in his mouth? IT AIN'T GEORGE!

Jack's naps have been short (30-45 minutes) since I stopped putting him in the swing to nap around 1.5 months. So really, we have 2 sleep problems: night and naps.

Teething is having an effect, I know, because the poor kid gnaws my finger off and chews on anything he can find. Plus he's a waterfall of drool every second of every day. No sign of teeth yet. PLEASE, God, let the teeth break through!

I'm going to start Jack on cereal this weekend and am praying that it helps him sleep. Again, PLEASE God!

It's hard to get a decent picture of Lincoln and Jackson together--this is usually what we end up with. :)

Jack's 5-month favs:

The Exersaucer (SUCH squeals!)

Sitting up in the boppies

Lincoln, Lincoln, Lincoln. Jack adores him!

Grabbing/smacking faces

Grabbing anything--he has a very strong grip. It's kind of annoying sometimes.

Kicking and flailing

Smiling

Squealing, laughing and cooing

The baby in the mirror. He's so funny! Jack likes to smack at him.

Being tickled

Reading books/batting at the pictures in books

Pooping out of outfits. All. the. TIME!

5-month dislikes:

Sleeping through a 1.5 hour nap

Sleeping through the night

Teething. Ugh.

Not being paid attention to

Happy Halloween!

Halloween was so much fun with our Lincoln-Dinosaur and Jackson-Tiger!



Jack was a tiger because that's the costume we had from Lincoln's first Halloween (only it fit him a lot better than Lincoln 2 years ago, probably because he's 5 months younger than Lincoln was and the costume size was mislabeled!)

Lincoln was a dinosaur because when we went to get his lion costume--he'd been saying he wanted to be a lion for months--he saw a (super-expensive) dinosaur costume & decided he wanted to be a dino instead. Not wanting to spend $20-$30, my friend Janet suggested I try Kmart, which I did. Yes, they had a dinosaur costume. And yes, it was 50% off! Score!

We went to Trunk or Treat at church on Sunday night and trick-or-treating around the neighborhood on Halloween. Let me tell you, Trunk or Treat is ALOT easier than old-school trick-or-treating! I don't remember getting that worn out walking around as a kid, but then I also wasn't carrying a 16-pound baby when I was a kid, either. And I was 20 years younger.

Here are Lincoln & Jackson, George, and Dad and Mom at Trunk or Treat:

And here are the boys and me just before Trunk or Treat:

Both nights were a blast! Lincoln loves to wear his dinosaur costume every day, usually 3-4 times in an average day. Jack is not such a fan of the tiger costume. :)

Having kids makes Halloween fun again!

Jack is 4 months old!

And I'm posting this less than two weeks later! What an improvement. :)


Jackson turned 4 months old on October 28. He is a happy, fun baby but has been having lots of trouble sleeping, both in naps and at night. His naps have never been great unless he was in the swing, but he's now down to only making it for 30 minutes before waking up and crying--and being next to impossible to get back to sleep.

Thankfully, his night sleep is starting to improve--just woke up twice last night, and again at 6 AM. Hopefully he made it until 7, which is his breakfast time.

The lack of sleeping at night is even harder because right about the time I came to work, he was sleeping from 8 PM to 7 AM! Even before that, he'd sleep from 8 PM to 4:30 AM and then go back to sleep until 7:30. So going back to night wakings has been even harder on us than if he had been waking up at night the entire time.

4-month favorites:

Eating! Yummy milk!

Lincoln :)

Sucking/chewing on anything, including but not limited to

his fists, toys, anyone's hand/arm/etc.

Smiling/squealing

(doesn't laugh as much as Lincoln did at this age)

Peeing everywhere with his diaper off. Must be the chill in the air!

The mirror. Such fun!

Batting at pictures in books/trying to turn the page

Grabbing at his feet--starting to try to get them into his mouth!

4-month dislikes:

Teething. Ugh!!

Shots at the doctor (but really, who likes those??)

Napping his needed hour and a half/sleeping through the night

Trying to sleep without the pacifier

Not having every whim catered to = screaming fits! :(