Getting big

Throughout the past year, I've referred countless times to this blog to recall how much Clara weighed at a certain age or what she was doing developmentally. It was great having it all documented, because I was totally unable to remember any of it myself! Well, I'm not going to be able to do the same for Luke in the future if I don't get my act in gear.

So here's an update on our little guy...

Luke will be five months tomorrow.

Luke's first Easter

He's just about 16 lbs. and at every doctor's appointment, he's at the 50th percentile for weight. But boy, does he seem huge compared to our little munchkin Clara! She was just starting to wear size 3-6 months at this point, while Luke has been in 6-9 month clothes for a few weeks. I'm still squeezing him into 3-6 too, though, since we have far fewer clothes in bigger sizes.

Believe it or not, my little baby boy is sitting up.

I started to notice about two or three weeks ago that Luke wasn't happy laying down in his boppy. The slight incline was apparently not enough for him and he kept trying to sit up. So I started sitting him up with the boppy around him in case he fell. Then I moved to him sitting with pillows nearby. Now he sits for a minute or two at a time, with me always right there to catch him when he's decided he's had enough.

He's got a little way to go before he can sit up entirely by himself, or, better yet, move into a sitting up position by himself. And that's perfectly fine, because he's growing up way too fast! It seems like just yesterday that I laid eyes on him for the first time. And now he's a sitter-upper!

With his cousin and big sis, on vacation

He can also roll over both ways, although he's still not all that crazy about tummy time. He loves his exersaucer (which I love!) and he also loves his toys, including a little football and baseball. He's grabbing at everything these days, and I am just starting to realize I can't put anything near him that I don't want him knocking over!

He also apparently likes to watch sports. Ryan swears he calms down whenever it's on. Problem is we don't have cable, so sports are rarely on the few channels we get with our antenna. Do I sense a play for Ryan to get cable here??? Honestly, I just might go for it if he can prove it actually puts him to sleep. Now that would be awesome.

With his grandpa. He's smiling and laughing all the time lately

Speaking of sleep, he has yet to make the big move to his crib (technically, he spent a wonderful week in his crib a couple months ago but that was short-lived). He's sleeping in our bed with us and the only way he'll fall asleep is while nursing. He wakes up a couple times throughout the night, nurses, and falls back asleep. Other than giving me a back ache, it's working great, unless something (or someone...Clara) wakes him up prematurely. If he's not hungry, he doesn't want to nurse, which means he can't fall back asleep.

His pediatrician thinks his sleeping issues are not behavioral (i.e. anything we're doing wrong), but rather are related to his very gurgly gut. She thinks when his digestive system matures around six months, whatever is going on will hopefully right itself. We'll try sleep training again around that time, and if it doesn't work, we might have to take him to see a G.I. specialist.

If you get a chance, can you say a prayer that his tummy issues do get better on their own?

He was sort of indifferent about the pool

Because of his fussiness and inability to put himself to sleep, I decided to take his doctor's advice and start him on baby food. I figured that maybe, just maybe, it would help him to sleep better at night. Today was his first jar of baby food (pears) and he ate the entire jar in about seven minutes. This kid loves food! I had a feeling he would.

Luke's also talking up a storm lately. He's been cooing for a while now, but in the past week it seems he found his voice. He yells (I remember when Clara did this!) and just goes on and on! He also started making raspberries a couple weeks ago as well. It's funny because when Clara first did that, it was this big production that I worked with her on and got on video. But poor Lukie, the second child, mastered it himself and tried to get my attention to show me what he was doing!

We absolutely love Luke so, so much. He is such a cutie and is getting bigger, smarter and more interactive by the minute. He loves his big sister so much, and his daddy. But, let's be honest, the kid is a mama's boy. He can't get enough of me.

And I love every second of it!