5 months!

Jude turned 5 months on Saturday!
This past month he has:
- rolled over tons.
- started schooching around the floor a little.
- continued to laugh and smile like crazy.
- has become much more vocal and seems to have the basic grasp of the rhythm of conversation.
- started showing basic communication signs by putting his arms out to be picked up, grabbing towards things he wants (which seems to be everything), and grabbing my shirt when he's hungry.
- sat up unsupported for brief periods of time.
-started to tolerate being on his stomach.
- been extra clingy and snuggly.
- shown signs of being ready to start eating solids by tracking food, trying to grab it, and putting silverware in his mouth properly.


Friday night he had rice cereal for the first time. He did super well with it, he actually swallowed most of it and ate about half a tablespoon of it. He kept opening his mouth for the spoon and closing it on it once it was in too.

I've started giving him bottles and sippy cups with a little bit of water in them to see if he knew how to drink from them because his not taking a bottle is getting a little ridiculous and I'd like a break from the house sometime without having to worry about coming home after 2 hours to feed him.





We finally met with the 2nd opinion doctors at UM hospitals last Monday. After much thought, research, and debating with myself I've decided to go with them for his surgery. I would have liked to go out of state but it isn't very feasible. UM does the procedure more on par to the top centers in the country. They won't do it until 9-13 months so I'll have to play this waiting game even longer. They don't use a helmet post-op. All-in-all I feel more confident going there.

Jude's first trip to the cottage.

As you know from my last update, I took Jude up north to my grandparents cottage on Lake Huron, just north of Oscoda. The drive there would've went smoother if a) I had fed him right before getting on the road (I had to stop fairly soon after getting on the highway) and b) I hadn't missed the exit for US-23 and didn't realize it until I was almost in Lansing. I had to stop 4 times because of those. Twice to feed Jude, once for more gas, and once to figure out how to get to where I needed to be once I was lost (which was fruitless aside from the Coke & cookies I bought from the McD's I stopped at to pee and get directions). I should've arrived at 12 and instead arrived at 1, which isn't too bad considering we didn't leave until about 8:30.

My grandparents, aunt Kathy, uncle Jim & little cousins Nuala, Lena, and Eamon were also up there, and Jude loved the attention from the kids, they would play with him and he would laugh at their funny faces. He was a good, happy baby all weekend, and surprisingly not too clingy on me and he slept really well, I wish he would have kept sleeping that well when we got home, but oh well, I still love him.

Here are some of the pictures from the weekend.

1) Grandma, Jude, Lena, & Eamon. 2) Jude laughing at Lena. 3) I put Jude in his port-a-crib, came back and found Sydney and Jude chilling in bed like this. 4) He's a pirate, fear him. 5) My aunt Julie made a quilt for my grandpa with everyone's hand prints so we added Jude's footprint to it and since there wasn't an extra empty square, we put him onto mine. 6) Eamon holding Jude. 7) Jude's 1st beach picture. It was about a quarter to seven and he didn't go back to sleep like normal so we took a walk down to the beach before sunrise, he was wrapped cozy and tight in 2 blankets and fell asleep, I got cold so we didn't stay to watch the sun rise. 8) He enjoyed Sydney's homework less than she did. 9) Us on the beach. 10) The kids.

Also, like my new layout. I made it purrty and made the banner myself. :D

Tomorrow night I start watching Haley for Lisa, a pretty awesome family friend. Since I can't get a job because of Jude's upcoming surgeries and her husband is in New Mexico for border patrol training we're helping each other out basically.

A real update now. :)

At Jude's pediatrician appointment last Thursday he had gained over a pound. He's going to be a little chunker butt haha.

Tomorrow we have an appointment with the plastic surgeon at children's hospital to look at his skin tags & I guess make a course of surgical action as to what to do. I'm scared about this whole surgery business. I also kind of love his little cheek nipples & don't want them to remove them, but I know if they don't he'll get super made fun of in school because children are brutally ruthless when it comes to people who are different. Poor Judey-Tuesday. :(

My grandma yelled at me for signing the waiver for the hep b vaccine at the hospital and not planning on getting it at his 2 month appointment. I just see no point in it this early. I finally ordered a copy of Dr. Sears' Vaccine Book to read & research all of the vaccines. I also threw a copy of his Baby Book into my shopping cart.

I found a pair of non-maternity pants that fit me! I should go through the rest of my clothing to see what fits. I already know most of my tops don't fit yet, and I'll kind of be upset if I end up not shrinking down a lot more to fit them because then I'll lose all of my sweet t-shirts. Oh well, I'm over it, if it happens I'll just add them to my sewing bucket and t-shirt quilt.

I started laying Jude on the floor to "play" last week. He loves looking around at everything so I lay him on a blanket on the floor with the activity gym from Ikea to look at the things on it. I'll also set toys near him to look at. He also gets some tummy time and he's getting pretty good with lifting his head, he has really strong neck muscles and fairly good head control already. It's not perfect yet, but it's good. Sometimes, not always, when he's on his tummy he can roll over to his back. No one believes it because he's so young, but I've seen it happen. I've also seen him roll in his sleep. Like one night I woke up and looked at him in his crib and he rolled onto his side, farted loudly like 5 times, then rolled back onto his back. It was one of the funniest things I've seen. Last night he was sleeping in bed with me, I know he fell asleep on his side while nursing, and I pushed him over onto his back, and when I woke up this morning he was on his tummy, with his arms folded under his head all cute and happy looking. I didn't take a picture, but I should have and am upset I didn't, it was adorable. I actually moved him to his crib from there and he was upset about it.

I think I need different cloth diapers. I love them, and I don't think prefolds & covers are a bad system at all, it's just my prefolds are crappy. It's because we got the Gerber ones and I know it. I'm also thinking it's my washing routine so I ordered some Crunchy Clean diaper detergent. Hopefully once I change the washing routine I'll be happier with them. They just don't feel soft enough and make me sad. Trial & error I guess.

I would have never thought I'd be the person I am today. Like my friend Carly asked a few months ago, "what would you have done if I told you in high school that the 2 of us would both be mothers by the time we were 21?" "I would have laughed in your face and told you you were crazy."