5 months

Anna Kate turned 5 months the day before we left for Colorado, so I am a tad behind on writing this post. I have also failed miserably at taking consistent "growth" pictures, but I am determined to keep up with the monthly updates!

One way you could describe AK at 5 months is as "the pincher"! She has the strongest little hands and is constantly grabbing faces, arms, mouths, and gouging out eyes! I remember Trip being fascinated by faces, but I don't remember it hurting so bad!

Development - Anna Kate seems to be a pretty "typical" baby. She tracks right along with all of the milestones. She recognizes me, J and Trip. She gets easily distracted while nursing. She is very loud when she wants to be, but most of the time just quietly watches Trip in awe and is such an observer. She rolls from front to back and back to front, grabs and chews on her feet. She can scoot her knees up under her and wiggle toward a toy.

Sleeping - I posted around 2 or 3 months that she was sleeping through the night. Well, that didn't last long. She has not been sleeping through the night for a while now. She wakes up when she comes un-swaddled or when her pacifier falls out. I was waking up 5 - 10 times a night with her for a while, but now it is down to 1 or 2 times, usually in the early morning between 4 and 6. If I re-swaddle her and plug the paci back in, she will go back to sleep until around 8. I would like to let her cry it out and self-soothe, but I am too paranoid that she will wake Trip up and then I will never get back to sleep. Hopefully she is growing out of this phase!

Likes - Trip is her favorite person these days. He loves doing anything he can to entertain her, and I love seeing this interaction. She LOVES her jumperoo! I will put her in it in the living room, and Trip will run wildly around her "teaching" her what all of the different toys do and dancing to the music it makes when AK jumps.

Hates - Anna Kate's least favorite thing in the entire world is a bottle. She still will not take a bottle, and I think I have run out of ideas and will power and will give up trying. She also still hates to be tired, but I think I finally have her on a pretty consistent schedule and we rarely get to the point where she is overtired anymore. The schedule is our friend!

Favorite memories - I guess as the second child, most of our memories of Anna Kate will involve her big brother. In general, it has been fun to watch the relationship between brother and sister develop each month.