Emery {5 Months}

Emery is FIVE months old! I think this has been the fastest month yet and I think we've seen more changes this month than the other months so far! It seems like every single day she's doing something new and Daniel and I look at each other like, "Did you just see that?!" The miracle that she is will never cease to amaze us. How people have children and watch them grow yet still don't believe it God is just beyond us. 

It's so hard to believe that in just one month, she will be *half a year* old!!! She is so much fun and we love her more than our hearts can even stand.

She just wasn't feeling it at 19 weeks... 

One Month Update
Two Month Update
Three Month Update
Four Month Update

Here's what's been going on with Emery the last month.

- Our last check-up was when she was 4-1/2 months old. At that time she weighed 15 pounds, 15 ounces and was 28 inches long. Her head circumference was 17 inches. I'm just not sure about that length, though. Basically they just made a mark above her head and below her feet on the paper she was laying on. I'm pretty sure that measurement is off, but I know she's tall. They said that 28 inches was literally off the charts. She's still in the 50th-75th percentile on her other stats.

- She's still wearing 6 month pajamas, but a few of them will probably be a little short soon. She can still wear some of her 3 month clothes. The rest are 3-6 months with a few 6 month things mixed in. She's in size two diapers and probably will be for a while. I had a few friends tell me that we'd probably be in size twos for a while, so I stocked up a lot in that size.

- She's still doing really well with her schedule. She eats 7 ounces every four hours. We were giving her cereal at the beginning of the month, but she just wasn't into it. She would push most of it back out of her mouth and cry after a few bites. Our doctor said she probably just wasn't ready yet. We tried it again at the end of the month and it went so much better! Now she's eating cereal once in the morning and once before she goes to bed. She is literally diving for the spoon now! :)

- I heard that babies slept even better once they started cereal. That really hasn't been the case with Emery. It may not have anything to do with the cereal, but she's started waking up much earlier than she used to and sometimes in the middle of the night. There have been a few nights that she wakes up at 4:00 for no apparent reason. Usually we'll just give her her pacifier and she'll go back to sleep. But other days, she's been waking up at 5:30-5:45 and she does *not* want to go back to sleep. She used to sleep until at least 6:45, usually later, every single morning. I have no idea what's up...

- She is now sleeping unswaddled and we're using this swaddle sleep sack. We were so nervous about it, but she's doing great {except for this last week}. In fact, the first night she slept until 8:00 the next morning...later than she'd ever slept before. That definitely didn't last, though.

- Oh naps...they are my undoing. They have been so up and down this last month. The 45 minute intruder was back with a vengeance so one weekend we decided to start nap training {we had to start it on a weekend because I needed moral support from Daniel}. It was awful for the first three days, but on day 4 she took two two-hour naps. She woke up for both naps, but went right back to sleep without crying. This lasted about a week and then the 45 minute intruder was back. We started nap training again and it was pretty awful for a little over a week. It's slightly better now, but she's still really inconsistent. Some naps are horrible and then every now and then, she'll sleep for two hours. I'm just trying not to stress over it.

- She's found her feet and plays with them all the time! It's the cutest thing ever when she grabs her toes!

Look at my feet!

- She still *loves* her Wubbanub pacifier {Wubby} and is super snuggly with it. As soon as we give it to her, she hugs it and sometimes even pets it. She also gets super excited when she sees us about to give it to her. She opens her mouth as wide as she can and makes these excited noises. She does the same thing when she sees her bottle.

{We got her a new Wubbanub for football season! It's an elephant and we named her Ellie. :) Roll tide!}

- Her hair is getting longer on top! Now I can put headbands a little higher on her head because she has hair that peeks out in front of it. So cute!

- She started sucking her thumb every now and then when she was in her crib and her pacifier had fallen out. That's slowed down, though, and I don't think she'll end up being a thumb sucker.

- Her little personality is starting to develop and it's so fun to watch. Most of the time she is *super* happy and smiley, but every now and then she gets mad and lets us know. She's started arching her back and making a frustrated noise if she doesn't like something.

- Books have pretty much always been fun for her, but she's getting more and more interested in them. I swear she tries to turn the pages sometimes! She's very observant and really, really looks at the pictures. She really pays attention to everything that goes on. Sometimes I'll bring her in the kitchen with me when I'm cooking and put her in her Bumbo seat, and she watches every single thing I do. I hope she loves to cook and bake with me someday!

- She's rolling over both ways now! She was rolling from her back to her side for a while, so we knew she was close, but on July 27th, she finally made it to her tummy and then rolled on her back again! She looked *so* proud of herself and we were cheering like fools! She's almost rolled over on her changing table, too. Whenever I go in her closet, she almost flips over trying to see what I'm doing. I won't be able to take my eyes off her for one second when she's on there anymore.

- We're expecting a tooth any day. She is drooling like crazy, running her tongue over her gums constantly, and chewing on everything...especially her hands. She hasn't been extremely fussy, though. She's had a few fussy days, but nothing terrible yet. {I hope I don't eat those words...}

- I love to sing to her and she's started to love it, too. When we were nap training, I would go in to try to soothe her and as soon as I started singing to her, she'd stop crying and smile at me. Talk about melting my heart. She does the same thing when Daniel sings to her and it couldn't be more precious. Her favorite songs are You Are My Sunshine, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, Jesus Loves Me, Pat-a-Cake, and Daniel's favorite, The Wheels on the Bus {totally kidding}. But seriously, she *loves* The Wheels on the Bus and smiles so big when we tap her nose and say "beep, beep, beep" for the horn.

- She's getting really good at using her hands. She can easily reach for toys, grab them, and hold on to them. She's also starting reaching for our faces and scratching the heck out of us...and we totally don't mind. :)

- She's a pretty noisy girl. She's starting making this new sound that sounds like a loud, high-pitched hiccup. She's still laughing quite a bit, but is totally unpredictable with what will make her laugh. What works one day doesn't even get a smile the next...so we continue to act completely goofy to see what will get her to giggle. Here's the latest thing that had her giggling:

- One thing that is never hard to get from her is a big smile. She'll open her mouth as wide as she can and just give us the cutest toothless {possibly not for long} grin. One thing that can almost always make her give us gigantic smiles {and sometimes laughs} is playing horsey. We cross our legs, put her on our foot, and bounce our leg up and down and she can't get enough. She also loves to just sit on our laps and bounce up and down. 

This picture even got a shout out on Instagram from Rod Man, the winner of Last Comic Standing, because she's a #livingroombaby!

- We got her an exersaucer a few weeks ago to give her something else to play with that doesn't involve laying on the floor {I'm freaked out about a flat spot she has on her head}. Well, flat spot or not, this exersaucer is awesome. She loves it so much and smiles her huge smiles when she makes it light up or play a song.

She loves those dangly butterflies...

...but she loves this iguana more. Of course it's the most annoying toy on the whole thing! ;)

I know I say the same thing in every monthly post, but oh my goodness, we love this girl so very much. We love every single minute with her, but are wishing that time would slow down just a bit. She's growing up too fast. We are so thankful to God for blessing us with her.