5 months

So I started writing this post 2 weeks ago and I'm just now getting back to it! I really should be doing homework, but this is way more interesting and fun! I can't believe Rowan is 5 1/2 months old! It's crazy how fast time really does go.

I don't have any official new stats, but I think the growth spurt is over. This is good news for my sleeping and eating habits! As I said in the previous post Rowan stopped sleeping through the night about a month and a half ago. I attributed it to a growth spurt, but I think that ended a couple weeks ago. For the most part Ryan or I get up about every 3 hours to roll him back to his side and put the pacifier back in. I haven't needed to feed him the past couple weeks, but since he can't roll himself from his back to his belly we have to do it for him and he prefers to sleep on his side. We are currently on day 2 were he has gone back to his old sleeping habits of 9+ hours straight so hopefully that continues! I'm not holding my breath though cause he did 3 days a few weeks ago. Both nights though he has put himself to sleep on his back and stayed that way all night so I'm going to keep my fingers crossed!

We got to get all dressed up for Ryan's cousin Bri's sweet 16 party. We had a great time with family and it was fun getting Rowan all dressed up in his onesie tux, vest, and hat! He was such a cutie!

As I said Rowan doesn't really roll over on his own. He can roll from his belly to his back, but he doesn't do it very often. This last week though he has been trying pretty hard to roll from his back to his belly so hopefully he figures it out soon. I'm not worried about him being behind developmentally, but it would be awesome if he would figure it out so we don't have to go roll him over during the night! He probably spends about 30 minutes or more on his belly each day, but he has no desire to try and roll over. He just cries until we help him sit up. He is however starting to pull himself up on to all fours. When on his belly he can turn himself completely around and go backwards so I won't be surprised if he starts crawling in the next month or so. He is really starting to get his knees under him and his butt in the air so it's only a matter of time now! I'm pretty sure he is going to crawl before he masters this rolling from back to belly thing. He is also pulling himself up to a standing position we he sits on our lap. He can also use the couch to pull himself up. I'm more then ready to be out of this apartment before he figures this out completely though. Concrete floors will not be to kind to his little head!

Speaking of moving, we have started looking for a house here in Lexington so that is exciting! Since we still own the house in Pennsylvania we are just going to rent here till we can get rid of that house. It's fun to look at houses again, but this time we are looking for more kid friendly amenities! I really want to be close to a park so I can take Rowan to play. We went to the park for the first time this past weekend when my parents were here. Rowan loved the swings! He didn't really know what to think of the slides, but he really liked watching all of the other kids. Hopefully we can make it there more often before the weather turns cold.

We also went to the pumpkin patch while my parents were in town. One of my favorite traditions growing up was going out to the pumpkin patch and picking our own pumpkins from the field. I was really excited to be able to do this will Rowan this year and I was glad my parents could be involved as well. The weather was gorgeous and we had a great time!

Rowan is eating great! We started solid food last month and we have been trying new things weekly. He really figured out the whole eating process very quickly and he loves his food! We have tried sweet potatoes, green beans, bananas, avocado, pears, carrots, and plums. The plums were just in the mesh bag we have so really he just sucked on the juices. He has liked everything so far. We made the green beans with the beans we got from our weekly share. They were string beans and we couldn't get them quite smooth enough so he wasn't a huge fan, but he still did pretty well. He loves banana in the mesh bag to suck on, but also likes them all mushed up. We do the avocado the same way. He devoured the small jar of pears and carrots. I've pretty much just been giving him a new food and then waiting till he has a nice poop before trying something new. We do rice cereal in between those times. We have only been feeding him solids at night for dinner, but I think we will add one more meal in the afternoon in the next couple of weeks. He is still nursing every 3 to 4 hours and that is also going great. I'm really glad I stuck with it even though it got really hard and uncomfortable. Rowan and I have both figured out what works best for us and it is an enjoyable process now. I'm still having trouble pumping so Rowan gets a bottle of formula when the sitter is here three days a week. She is only here a couple hours each day so if I can time it right he doesn't get a bottle at all from her.

All in all things are going fantastic and I couldn't be happier with my little boy. He makes me smile everyday and I can't wait to see what he does next!

-Nicki