Nora at 5 Months!

I can't believe I'm even writing this. It seems like Nora just came into our lives but at the same time, like she's always been here!

Nora is such a little curious baby, here's all about her at 5 months old:

• She is still sleeping like a champ at night. She goes to bed at 6:30 or 7pm with little or no crying and then sleeps until 6 or 7. I feed her then and put her back down for another 1-2 hours. I can't complain on that front! If she wakes up anytime before 6, we don't get her-just let her cry until she falls asleep again (this is rare that she cries-the girl likes her sleep). The current routine for naps and bedtime is diaper change/nursing (if needed), sleep sack, kiss on the head and sound machine. Pretty simple and I like it that way!
• She also just stopped being swaddled a few weeks ago. She does well now but does often kind of "scoot" around her crib and is always in a different spot when I look at her on the monitor. 
• She is so curious! She loves to look at everything and touch everything. Today I was wearing a sequined sweatshirt and she couldn't get over it! 
• She is grabbing everything and trying to get things in her mouth. She has little hands and a little mouth so it doesn't always work! Most of her teething toys are even too big (or she can't maneuver them well enough). The best teething/grabbing toy we have for right now are fun size candy bars from  Halloween.
• She rolls to her side a lot to grab for things and look at things-especially her awesome baby phone that lights up and sings.
• She needs quite a bit of entertaining these days. I pretty much move her from the doorway jumper to tummy time to bumbo to me carrying her around and trying to get things done.
• I wish her naps were as good as her nighttime sleep. All day long, she literally is awake for an hour, then I put her down for a nap for 45 minutes-1 hour. All day. So it gets tiring for me but I know she needs the sleep. I'm trying to get her to more like 2, 2 hour naps so it's more restorative for her (and ME!). I haven't figured out how to do this yet, any ideas?
• She does little exercises with Jason each day where he barely pulls her up from lying down with his fingers and then he slightly pulls her up to standing. She's got some strong ab muscles and when you lay her down to changer her diaper she tries to sit up and she does a pretty good head/back lift.
• She LOVES the swing at the park. She does the best smiles and often laughs and coos the whole time. I never want to take her out of it-it's the best!
• We go to music group each week with friends and I can't say she is truly enjoying it yet but she is definitely intrigued. She is mesmerized by watching all the bigger kids and older babies moving around/the chaos :)
• She was really cranky for 4 days straight this week and I think she's started teething although I haven't seen any teeth yet! 
• She hates clothes being put on her and kicks off pretty much any shoes or socks I put on her. Winter is going to be interesting since she doesn't love coats being put on either!
• She has found her feet in the past couple of days. She grabs them and is now trying to put them in her mouth too-it entertains her for quite a while now! 
• She is still nursing great and we are planning to introduce solids in the next few weeks. I'm leaning towards trying the "Baby led solids" approach- anyone have any opinions on this?

 

And a couple outtakes for laughs....

 Falling baby

 "Are we done with this photo shoot yet?"

We love you sweet Nora!