5 Months!

Our little sweet guy is now 5 months old!  He has the BEST smile and laugh!  It's contagious!  This month Samuel Reid has been a busy boy.  He has perfected his rolling over from back to tummy, gotten better at napping in the co-sleeper rather than in the swing (as I am typing this he just woke up after about 6 minutes of napping - definitely still a work in progress), celebrated his first Easter, made a trip or two to Brenham, celebrated Noah's (cousin) baptism, attended a birthday party, went to the zoo for the first time, celebrated Mommy's birthday, and spent lots of time outside enjoying this beautiful Spring weather! 

Samuel weighed in at 14 lb. 11 oz. and, if he was still for a second, I'd know how long he is.  haha  He is always moving!  His hands are flapping around, legs kicking, head watching where anything in motion near him is going, etc.  This constant motion is why he is still swaddled for naps and night time sleeping!  He even is quite the Houdini baby and still wiggles his little arms free and wakes himself up!  Without the swaddle holding his little arms down, he has trouble settling in to sleep and wakes himself up every few minutes or as soon as we lay him down.  Not fun for anyone!  Caleb was swaddled until about 7-8 months and easily gave it up at that time so hoping that will happen with Samuel too!  Speaking of sleep, Samuel definitely hit the "4 Month Sleep Regression" we've heard so much about.  Although, not sure if it's technically a "regression" if you weren't sleeping well in the first place.  ha  Even so, it has gotten worse.  This month most nights he was awake 3-5 times a night and had trouble falling back to sleep after eating or being walked around.  Mommy is exhausted!  Most days he takes three 40 minute naps and sometimes a small cat-nap around 5:00 just so he can make it to bedtime without screaming for two hours. 

He loves being on his tummy and this month has really started to push up quite high.  His whole chest is off of the floor at times!  Wonder if this means he will be an early crawler (unlike his brother)?!  He very easily rolls over from his back to his tummy but sometimes struggles to get back the other way.  He seems to prefer to be on his tummy anyway so why practice rolling to your back?!  haha

Month 5 favorites:

• Smiling, cooing, laughing - especially at Mommy and other women!  (Flirt!!)
• tummy-time
• looking at and holding toys
• grabbing Caleb's finger
• watching Caleb run back and forth in the yard
• having his toes in the grass
• being outside and going on stroller walks
• trying to arch his back enough to fall out of the swing or bouncer seat!

Month 5 dislikes:

• Riding in the carseat (if you have any magic solutions, we all would greatly appreciate it.  Samuel screaming at the top of his lungs makes for a VERY long trip anywhere.)
• being laid down while asleep
• sleeping
• Seeing Mommy but not being held by her

"Look, Ma!  I'm going to be crawling soon!!"

 I know every Mom says this but seriously, I have got the cutest kids in the whole world!!  Seriously. 

haha - Samuel's doing a "power arch" of his back and Mal isn't quite sure what to do!!

Trying out the African drums on our zoo trip

Beautiful weather for a trip to the zoo together!