5 months!

My little monkey is 5 months old! I cant believe it, its going by so fast. Everyone said it would, but wow. First, here is what Eli is doing now! He can roll from back to front and front to back. He prefers to be on his back though, and although he *can* roll from back to front, he rarely does. He can hold his weight on his legs, and has been since he was 1-2 months old. I am wondering if he will skip crawling and go straight to walking? He is putting everything he can reach in his mouth. Including daddy's name tag, jump drive, pens, etc. haha. Geoff has to be careful holding him after work until he changes out of his work clothes! Eli is also sitting for a few seconds at a time. I think he could sit longer, but he really prefers to stand. He tries to stand up in his bumbo seat all the time and I am afraid he is going to flip himself out of it one day! He has also started making new noises! Its somewhere between incredibly cute and slightly annoying. He grumbles, mumbles, coos and babbles constantly. The annoying part is he can also shriek like a baby pterodactyl. Its the shrillest, loudest, most ear peircing thing I have ever heard!!! There is no doubt he wants something when he does it. And he does it a lot, like in church :o) lol.

As far as eating and sleeping...he is still breast fed exclusively. Our doc gave us the go ahead for solids at 4 months, which surprised me because the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends waiting til 6 months. A lot of people have suggested starting solids sooner because it will help him sleep longer. I dont buy it. I want to wait til I know for sure he's ready, and solids before a year are just for flavor anyway 95%+ of their nutrition is supposed to come from breastmilk or formula. He's had a few bites of applesauce and bananas, he mostly shutters, gags and makes faces at it. Overall, I dont think hes that ready.
And for sleeping. We tried the no cry sleep solution for two weeks solid. And it was 14 nights of hell. I can honestly say that was the most sleep deprived, most exhausted I have been since he was born. He would take over 45 minutes to rock to sleep, and then he would wake up over and over. I would go in and have to rock him back to sleep 5 or 6 times between 8 an 10. He never slept more than 2-3 hours. So, for now, hes back in bed with me. We did go out and get a king size bed though :o)
I know my last post said it was going ok, but after that night he was in bed with me, I spent 2 nights at my parents house and he coslept the entire time. He even slept for 5 hours one night!! Our goal of sleep training was for everyone to get more sleep. With the crib thing, we werent. So hes back in our bed. And for now, its working great.

Back to him being fussy, we ordered the The Fussy Baby Book: Parenting Your High Needs Child by Dr. Sears. And in it he highlights 12 features of a high needs baby. Eli is 11.5 out of 12! I guess its good to know we're not alone, we're not doing anything wrong, and its OK for him to be that way. I have had a lot of anxiety and frustration over Eli's neediness. Now I guess I feel relief that its just his personality and its our job to help him learn how to use it to his benefit. Of course we want him to grow up to a likable, successful, productive person. Its hard to because its easy to become apologetic about his needs. Or to compare him to other babies, he doesnt sleep as much, or he's not content on the floor alone, or whatever but thats not fair to him. People usually think I am grossly over exaggerating when I say he's high needs or demanding...until they witness it! hahahaha lol Anyway, its good to know that our little man is just who he is, and there is nothing we can do but love him :o) Which I knew anyway, but its good to reminded of it!