5-Month Update

On August 13, 2008, our little miracle turned 5-months old.

As she enters her 6th month of life, several things await her curiosity. One of the most interesting, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, is at 6 months of life babies successfully find and place their feet into their mouth. Eden definitely is putting everything else into her mouth these days, so we're sure her feet are not far behind.

Evidence of other milestones for Eden include a determination to sit up by herself and the leg strength to stand while assisted. An interesting antecdote ... the other day, Ashley and I were driving around looking for a crib. Eden was in the back of Lola (our Corrolla) grunting. Ashley caught a glipse of her in the rearview mirror attempting to sit up in her carseat. She was so determined that her hands were in front for leverage and her feet were propelled upward from the thrusting.

Eden also responds to sounds, laughs, holds her head up by herself, and is starting to form a personality.

In addition, she definitely knows Mom and Dad and is beginning to show a preference for one or both of us. The other day, I was giving Eden a bottle when I thought she was finished. After burping her, I sat her on my knee to practice balancing. She got a little fussy, so I asked Ashley to fix another few ounces of formula.

Ashley came into the room with the bottle; Eden stopped fussing. Ashley exited the room; Eden began fussing. As soon as Ashley reentered the room and Eden saw her, Eden looked up and smiled. Ashley picked her up, with Eden facing away from me. Eden responded by clutching onto Ashley and placing her face into her Momma's shoulder. Then, a few seconds later, Eden lifted her head, turned it toward me, and uttered what sounded like, "Ooooouhhhoaahhhh." I mimicked this sound, and we carried on a short conversation. We just needed to do things her way - she wanted Ashley to hold her while she talked to me. Quite an interesting event for us.

A few other things have changed as well. Eden is now moving out of her 3-month clothes and into the 3-6 month size. She's also firmly in a size 2 diaper so we think she'd closing in on 14 pounds. After her 4-month growth spurt (which we experienced during a challenging night at Mama II's house in Andalusia), we started supplementing Eden's nursing and breast milk bottles with a little formula. It mainly occurred at night when Ashley had a hard time keeping up with Eden's increased need before bed and Eden's desire to have a bottle at bedtime. Since then, things have worked themselves out even more. Now, Ashley is able to go for long stretches without nursing/pumping and without hurting, which will be a huge blessing as we return to work outside the home this week. So, as Eden enters her 6th month, she's moving toward nursing in the mornings (still a very sweet time as Ashley says) and mixing up bottles and some nursing throughout the rest of the day. We think this will work well as Eden starts to go to "Parents Day Out" at First Pres later in the month.