Reed at 5 months – sitting up, traveling, swimming, and always eating!

Loving the outdoors!

My last post was a bit of a downer, so I figured I should write another to talk about all the great stuff Reed has been up to. Not everything has been tummy issues and unpleasantness — in fact, there’s been a lot of fun stuff going on in Reed’s life. And he’s been an absolute joy to have around. He almost never cries and only gets fussy if he’s starving or needing a nap. Most of the time he’s just a fun, energetic, curious and amazingly social little guy. It blows me away to think about how much he’s accomplished in these short 5 months.

On Thursday, Reed turned 5 months old. The next day, he sat up unsupported for a very brief period of time. On Saturday, he actually sat up for nearly a minute (photographic evidence can be found here). He’s really been into his feet — putting them in the air and grabbing them — which I think helped with the sitting up process. He’s been trying to get his foot into his mouth, but isn’t quite limber or long-legged enough. But I’m sure he’ll get there in time. He is absolutely huge now. He was almost 17 lbs. about 2 weeks ago and he has definitely gone through a growth spurt since then. It amazes me how big and sturdy he is — I was always in the bottom percentiles for height and weight and I don’t think Adam was exactly a giant either. Reed constantly gets taken for a much older child, but part of that may just be his hair and the fact that his head is proportionate to his body (as opposed to having one of those deliciously round pumpkin heads many babies have).

We’re still slowly working on the solid foods thing. His favorite food is definitely sweet potato — even after trying apples and pears, he still prefers it. Cereal has been tough since stopping breastmilk. He loved rice cereal with breastmilk, but hates it (read: will cry if it’s put in his mouth) with formula. We tried to give him a new multigrain cereal with water this morning and he seemed to like it ok. I tried it and it basically just tasted like flour and water. Yum? I may try mixing the cereal with sweet potatoes and water — that would definitely make it more palatable. He’s still not eating enough solids to sleep through the night. In fact, during the night he wants to eat every 3 hours on the dot, which is starting to wear on me and Adam. His teachers at daycare comment that he eats more during the day than a lot of the kids twice his age. He’s not that chunky, so he must have a killer metabolism. So I guess he’s just a really hungry guy and we probably just need to work towards giving him more solid food before bed.

Reed's first swim!

Reed went on a plane trip for the second time in his life. Two weeks ago, he flew to Florida to visit his grammy and grandpa (my parents). He had a good time playing with the million toys grammy bought for him and even went in the pool! It was pretty obvious though that he was happy to come home and get back into his routine (we like routines too!). He got sick while we were traveling and then got us sick. At first I thought he’d gotten sick from daycare, but it turned out that none of the other kids had what he had (parvovirus B19). It made me realize that perhaps air travel may not be a good idea this Fall and Winter with the regular flu and H1N1 going around. With all of his allergies and sensitivities his body is taxed enough. I’d hate to expose him to all those germs on a plane again.

Since getting back from Florida, we’ve been trying to enjoy what’s left of the good autumn weather before we have to hunker down with him at home for the winter months. We’re already getting some pretty chilly days, so much so that I had to bundle him up and put a hat on him when we went to a harvest festival this past Saturday. But today is gorgeous and sunny, so as soon as the little man wakes up from his nap, we’re going to take a nice walk around the block. Being with him and watching him play and grow is such a pleasure.

All bundled up!