it's amazing to think we've already known noah for 5 whole months! in the last few weeks, we've seen more and more of his personality develop and he's become *much* more interactive with the world around him. his sweet little smiles and personality are my favorite thing to come home to after a long night at work... the perfect medicine! as far as activities go: he now enjoys playing in his exersaucer for extended periods of time, rolling around on the floor and working up the strength to make it onto his knees, sitting up with minimal assistance and playing games like peek-a-boo and patty cake. the best part about this month? noah has really found his laugh! he used to give a small giggle or big gummy smile if we could really amuse him, now he belly laughs at most anything silly or goofy or pleasing to him. it is the best!
noah thought this rattle was *hilarious* the other day:
after our trip last month to the pediatrician we were able to start noah on solid foods. like anything, this was both good and bad for many reasons. the good: a fuller tummy would mean our sound sleeper would hopefully return, solids can help settle little reflux tummies and decrease the symptoms, and it makes it that much easier for other people to help feed him. the bad: i was hoping to exclusively breastfeed for the first 6 months for noah's benefit (as always, noah had a different plan about what was best for him!), i now have to coordinate meals for our little one and have taken on the task of making all his baby food. we also had to re-work his schedule (through *lots* of trial and error -- sometimes it seemed like mostly error) to fit solids into his diet with his nursing schedule. so far we've tried apples, pears, bananas, avocado, sweet potatoes, zucchini and yellow squash. his favorites are the apples and pears. his least favorite is the sqaush. we also found that noah cannot do rice cereal and reflux medications....this equals some serious constipation for our little man. fortunately, this mommy is a pediatric ER nurse and was able to utilize some medication and a change in diet to "fix" this problem! we are still having some issues getting noah to settle back into a night-time schedule and routine -- made doubly difficult since matt and i both work nights/evenings so consistency can be tricky -- but we are working on those and are hoping that very soon noah will be back to falling asleep without problems at bedtime and sleeping through the night again.
what else in noah news? he got a visit from his paternal grandparents! at the beginning of the month both sets of matt's parents braved the texas heat for a visit from july 1 - 7th to get the chance to meet their grandson in person (noah and matt have had several video chats with our family in ohio). with our hectic work schedules and adjusting to life with a little one, we haven't had a chance to visit ohio this year, so this was a real treat! of course, noah loved all the attention... and matt and i weren't complaining too much about having some extra hands around to help for the week!
noah also got to meet his newest cousin, gabriella rae proctor, who actually bumped him out of the "youngest member of the extended family" spot a short 5 months after his arrival. he doesn't seem too excited about her just yet, nor she about him, but i'm sure that with time the two will have much more in common and be glad they have a cousin so close in age.
we go back to the pediatrician at the end of august, so i will post an update on his weight and height then. in the meantime, his unofficial weight is around 14 lbs. it's crazy to think he came home at less than 1/2 that weight! it seems like with each month that passes noah gets more fun to be around (read: more interactive), but he's less of a baby every day. despite our hectic schedules, i'm trying hard to appreciate each little moment and remind myself that the next time we do this i'll have a toddler running around! and while there is no question in my mind as to whether or not we will have more kids, it's also nice to enjoy just one little king right now :)
