5 Months

The Little Guy is growing so fast! He's {mostly} a happy little baby who is a little cutie :)

He's more dextrous: he can maneuver toys into his mouth and has found his feet.

When he's tired he bats at the sides of his head. At first we thought he had an ear infection(s), but the doctor said his ears look healthy, so the batting is indicative of being tired instead of in pain. Recognizing this makes it easier to figure out why he's fussing.

His long newborn hair is thinning out, but the new growth that started when he was about a month old is coming in strong and has grown noticeably.

He sits in his high chair while we eat- he likes being up where he can see us. He's showing more interest in food and has managed to grab my bowl a couple times when I've been eating and holding him at the same time (he still wants to be held all the time). Despite showing interest, he's still not quite ready to start eating- he doesn't know what to do when we place a dab of something on his lip.

He's working on sitting up on his own. He still topples to the side/front, but is doing lots better.

As he gets older, the differences between LMS and TLM are becoming more obvious.

My milk supply with LMS was a lot different. I had plenty in the morning, so I'd feed her on one side while pumping the other (I could only pump if she was nursing- I couldn't pump without her helping). By evening there was only a little left, so she'd get what she could by nursing, and then she'd have a bottle with milk that I'd pumped that morning. She ended up drinking a larger volume at that evening feeding, and it would last her till about 4 in the morning when we woke up and started it all over again (Mr M got up then to work out before going to classes, so the timing worked out well). I tried everything to increase my milk supply, and nothing worked. We barely made it a year, but were down to one morning feeding for the last 2-3 months.

Going gluten free has helped my milk supply (among other things), and this time my milk supply is fine, regardless of the time of day. No "running out" this time. I do pump occasionally (and can pump without TLM nursing the other side) so Mr M can give TLM a bottle while I'm at Scouts or something, but neither is a daily occurrence. I've tried getting him to drink a larger volume (by nursing both sides) at an evening feeding, but he won't do it. So I'm still feeding him every two hours or so. I keep telling him if he ate more he could go longer between feedings, but he doesn't seem to care about that :)

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LMS was sleeping through the night by this point, but because of the different eating habits, TLM isn't.  Naps are also a lot less regular than they were for her. I expected this because of the schedule we have- no two consecutive days are the same. I was hoping this would make him a more flexible sleeper (LMS was not a flexible sleeper at all), but I'm not sure this is happening if his recent naps are anything to go by. On the other hand, we could just be going through a phase and things could improve.

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LMS never really chewed on things or stuck things in her mouth. And I know how lucky we were :)

TLM, on the other hand, is constantly chewing on his fingers/thumbs (I've seen both thumbs in his mouth at the same time)/toys. I've noticed he doesn't actually suck his thumb that much (only if he's tired or hungry)- the rest of the time he's just chewing on them. I'm not sure if this is the precursor to teething, or if this is going to be an on-going issue. We were spoiled by LMS never shoving things in her mouth, but I have the feeling we'll have to do a thorough baby-proofing and keep an eagle eye on him.