5 months old!!!

I can hardly believe, but Avery was five months old today. Time has flown by so quickly, and now I can barely remember what life was like when she was a newborn. Oh well, I guess that is what they all say! :)

So the stats: when Avery was at the pediatrician in mid-July she weighed 15 lbs 10 oz and was 25.75 inches tall. She is probably now around 16-16.5 lbs and about 26 inches. We moved her into her new car seat this week (and as everyone warned me, I do miss the bucket!). She still sleeps a fair bit when in the car, but she also reaches her limit much more quickly these days and sobs as though the world is coming to an end - until we start moving again. She is now eating rice and barley cereal twice a day - she really seems to like eating, but I wonder how much food is actually getting into her, since she also likes to eat her fingers and toes during meals. She is getting closer to sitting up on her own, she is sort-of imitating some facial expressions, and I don't really think there are any signs of teeth yet though - but I could be wrong on that one!

We moved her crib into her own room a couple of weeks ago and at first her sleeping patterns didn't change at all - in a good way. However, the last few nights have been rough. She wakes up several times, not always to feed but sometimes because she can't soothe herself back to sleep or because she ends up on her stomach and doesn't like it. And last night, just when it seemed like Avery was actually going to sleep a little longer, the alarm on the monitor went off twice! Both times we rushed into the room to find her calmly sleeping on her back, but I suspect she rolled so close to the bars that she rolled off the sensor pad. We have the Angel Care monitor that detects movement (breathing/heart beat), as well as sound. At some points I have loved the comfort of knowing she is still breathing without needing to check on her every 5 minutes, but now I am nearing the point where we might only use the sound feature. To be determined in the next couple of nights...maybe this sleep issue is just the 5-month phase that Bonnie told me about. Or maybe it is nothing and I just wasn't expecting baby sleeping to be this inconsistent and confusing! :)

In other news, we had another successful trip to Toronto last week. We saw most family members and friends, made it to the Canadian Open golf tournament for a little bit, and even hit the Big Apple on the 401 on the way home. I have always wondered what it was all about and now I know - we weren't missing too much. Greg is heading back to work tomorrow after being off for all of July. It was a good month and we did some fun things - but all fun usually comes to an end. It will be a hard adjustment for both of us - no more sleeping in for him and much more planning and coping during the day for me, but at least now I can try to get Avery on more of a schedule. We shall see how that works out!