The Zipps Family: 5 Months!

My Chloe girl is 5 months old! I usually start off each monthly post by saying how quickly it flew by. Well, I can't really say that for this month! We continue to adore our sweet little blessing. Chloe is so smiley and fun to be around during the day. I just love her so very much and continue to be so very thankful that she is here with us. She truly is the perfect addition to our family. With that being said, Miss Thang gave us a bit of a hard time this month! She was an angel during the day but she simply would.not.sleep.

Sleeping- We'll start here because that seemed to affect everything else this month. We moved her upstairs to her room still in her rock and play a little before 4 months. She was sleeping fine so we had the bright idea of moving her to her crib while things were going well. She did okay at first with a few extra wakings during the night. No big deal. Then we went to her 4 month well visit about a week or two after she turned 4 months. Chloe decided to start rolling from her back to stomach 4 separate times while waiting for Dr. N to come into the room. That's where all h*#% broke loose.

From that night on she literally couldn't stop squirming in the night. We would put her down at 8 and she would pretty much wake up every.single.hour. Sometimes she would wake up 2 or 3 times before I would even go to bed at night. I thought it was just going to be a day or two of adjustment but it kept going and going. I was thrilled if I got a three hour stretch in the night. I know I have no right to complain at all because she slept like a dream since almost day one of her life but it was tough. I felt like a zombie and there were some days that I honestly felt like I was going to die if I didn't get some sleep (I'm not dramatic or anything :) ). I started off very positively thinking that I would just take the extra time praying while rocking my sweet girl in the night. There seemed to be lots of hurting people around me at the time and so it really was a great use of time. I was pretty much keeping it together but after a week or so my brain felt fuzzy and I was having a hard time getting through the day without wanting to cry in frustration.

This is the aftermath of a particularly bad night. I think I had asked Bill to go upstairs around 3ish. There is a miracle blanket, Magic Merlin sleepsuit, fish mobile toy, a dirty diaper, and a boppy strewn about. He tried everything. I love him.

Sleeping her day away to make up for the lack of sleep the night before.

After two weeks went by (and one slightly traumatic experience), I decided that something must be done. I was feeling so sad that I couldn't fully enjoy the days with my two girls. They both were so happy and fun to be around during the day but I was flat out exhausted and wasn't able to appreciate them like I wanted to. I purchased two sleeping devices- the Magic Merlin sleepsuit (fail) and the Woombie (win!). I also did some research and started the Ferber method- putting her down awake and letting her figure out how to soothe herself to sleep. I was rocking her and feeding her to sleep every time she woke and she was not able to do it herself. It works like this- put her in bed, let her cry for 3 minutes, go check on her/ soothe her, set timer for 5 minutes, if still crying go check on her, then 10 minutes each time after.

The first night of this went pretty well. She woke maybe 2 or 3 times in the night and she would fall asleep by the 1st or 2nd 10 minute segment. Unfortunately, I started getting sick around then and couldn't sleep for a few nights even though Chloe was sleeping better. By the end of the month, things were looking up thankfully. Chloe still wasn't sleeping amazingly but she would usually give me at least a 3 hour stretch or two in the night. She was taking two pretty good naps a day which helped a lot (usually 1 1/2 - 2 hours). Hopefully we will all be well rested by the time 6 months rolls around!

Eating- Chloe is still exclusively breastfed but we plan to begin rice cereal very soon. I think that a little extra food will help her out although clearly she isn't starving! She usually eats around every 3 hours during the day and when things were really rough at night I would feed her 1-2 times each night- anything to get that girl to sleep.

She is wearing size 3 diapers and 6 months or 6-12 months clothing depending on the brand.

New this month-
-Rolling from back to stomach. She now loves to roll constantly all over the place.

-Our sweet girl has been talking up a storm. She loves to hear her voice.
-Razzing- She loves to make the razzing sound. Spit flies everywhere but she seems so proud of herself when she does it.
-She now loves watching Ave. Her favorite is watching her sis dance in the living room.

-Reaching for things

-Playing with/ chewing/ sucking on toes. Avery has a big problem with this. She always tells Chloe that you are "NOT rupposed to put your feet in your mouth!"