We're still here!

First, here's a countdown of the last five months in pictures. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!

Five Months

Four Months

Three Months

Two Months

One Month

I can't believe I have a five month old. I can't believe I haven't posted since July. So much was going on during the semester, I rarely had a moment to reflect. Mostly, I use every spare minute I have to clean and sleep. Even now, I'm wondering if writing this is such a great idea since it means losing twenty minutes of sleep. Also, I feel like I can never REALLY write what is going on or how I feel because I'm not sure that blogspot is super secure. I've thought about starting a private, password protected blog or something, but then I would feel like a jerk for thinking people wanted to know about my problems SO MUCH that they were willing to jump through hoops. Whatever. All is well, and all manner of things shall be well. That's Julian of Norwich speak for Hakuna Matata.

We survived the first semester of parenthood. Big D did well in school, but he had to take an incomplete in one class, so he's not quite done yet. But he DID get A's in the other classes. I still have my presh 4.0. Huzzah. Little D is the most adorable, wonderful, fantastic little terror ever. His new thing is...wait for it!...laughing! I'm willing to do the most absurd things to make him do it. The most recent is putting his fingers on my lips and blowing raspberries. He thinks it is hysterical. He's still nursing, but we have introduced some solid foods: rice cereal, sweet potatoes, avocados, and bananas. I know that everything says no food until 6 months, but the little guy was nursing CONSTANTLY and I just couldn't keep up. Nursing every two hours ALL DAY AND ALL NIGHT is impossible. Period. I tried supplementing with formula, but the more I breastfed, the less interested he was in bottles. I chose to keep breastfeeding as often as possible. He's sitting up by himself (mostly), he can pick things up and put them in his mouth, and he uses a spoon like a professional. Yes, a professional spoon-user.

Tonight is the first night he's sleeping in his crib, and it's not going well so far. I think I laid him down at about 9:15, and I've already had to rock him back to sleep three times. I don't know if the mattress is just that much harder than his pack'n'play or if the change in lighting is bothering him or if he just has gas. It could even be that when he does stir a little, he sees a high contrast black and white floral pattern. (That, for the record, was a terrible idea.) I wish someone had told me how much of parenting is guesswork. He cries, and I have to run down a list of things that might be wrong. Thankfully, it is a pretty short list, and even if it's not really what he wants, latching him on usually works. But then I feel like a bad parent for teaching him how to stress eat.

Let the fact that I'm not proofreading being a monument to my exhaustion.