I really like to take pictures...

I have taken so many pictures of my sweet girl because I want to remember every day of her life. I may not be a professional and I really need to learn how to properly edit photos but I think I get some pretty good shots. Here are some I'm loving right now.

5 months old!

Amelia is 5 months old! (and some day I may actually get a post up on time...) Ridiculously long post ahead...

(updated weekly photos are on the watch me grow page!)

As I say every time...so much has changed in a month. I may say it every time I write an update but that doesn't make it any less true. I am so amazed by how much Amelia has grown into a little person in the last 5 months. She is so deliberate in her actions and has her own little personality. I cannot believe how quickly time is flying by. Everyone keeps telling us to enjoy every minute because it will go by so fast. It sounds so cliche but it s absolutely true. I feel like I am going to blink and she will be walking and talking!

Much like last month we have had quite a month of ups and downs. Thankfully mostly ups but there have been some difficult times mixed in. Of course...the difficulty is all about sleep and breastfeeding. This month Amelia decided to really throw me for a loop with her feeding/sleeping. In a matter of a week Amelia got her 4 month shots, mastered rolling over and got a little cold. We went from a solid 6-7 hour stretch minimum a night with one feeding to waking every 3 hours again. The problems started with the shots. She took it a lot worse than she did at her 2 month appointment. She really wasn't herself for about 3 days. Then she mastered rolling over and its like she was compelled to do it every single time we put her on her back, even though she was not happy once she made it to her stomach. Then she got a little cold and was a sniffly mess. Thankfully the cold didn't last too long. (Yay breastfeeding!) All of these things and a possible 4 month sleep regression meant a difficult month for mommy! I would put Amelia down around 8 or 8:30 and like clockwork she would roll over and wake up around 10:30, daddy tried to soothe her, mommy tried to soothe her, nothing worked...except feeding her. I'm pretty sure she didn't need to eat so much as she needed the comfort but it was all that would work. After the 10:30ish feeding she would inevitably wake around 1:30 for her usual nightly feeding and sometimes again around 4:30. It was a brutal schedule. Thankfully as the month went by it got a little better. I started letting her fuss for a bit when she woke at 10:30, I never let her get herself completely worked up but she would usually fuss on and off for 10-15 minutes and then soothe herself back to sleep. She eventually stopped waking up at that time. Then we hovered between her waking once or twice a night for several nights...then back to once a night...then...(please don't jinx it because I'm writing it...) NO WAKINGS. That's right, as I type this she has gone almost a week with no night wakings. Great for her sleep but led me to another problem...having to wake up to pump. I will spare you the details but its not fun. Hopefully this is the beginning of a new wonderful sleeping baby!!! Wish us luck!

Amelia has grown and developed so much in the last month, here are some of her accomplishments:

• Can roll from back to front, and front to back (although she is much better at back to front oddly enough)
• doesn't terribly mind tummy time and is starting to push herself around and lift her bum
• sleeps on her tummy most of the time
• naps in the crib!!!! (hallelujah!)
• found her feet! (3/29/12)
• puts her feet in her mouth (ew)
• first time in a high chair (it only lasted about 10 minutes...shes wasn't really ready)(4/14/12)
• enjoys playing in her excersaucer/bounce baby
• giggles like crazy when mommy and daddy kiss her cheeks or pretend to eat her belly
• loves when mommy and daddy read her books
• showing signs she knows her name, absolutely knows mommy and daddy's voices
• loves touching faces
• loves looking in the mirror (so vane...) :)
• has learned the joy of dropping toys
• getting interested in the food we eat, she stares at the food as we put it in our mouth and even has begun to reach for it... Eric and I are taking Infant CPR and then we are going to start her on some solids. We are going to do a combination of homemade purees and baby led weaning and see how it goes! First up is Avocado and Sweet Potato!

We had a lot of fun in Amelia's 5th month of life. We celebrated St. Patrick's Day and Easter.

Amelia met a few new friends.

Ali Claire Pingley and Amelia

Welcome to the world Mackenzie Elizabeth Mannix!

Aunt Abby came to visit!

Amelia is truly the joy and light of our lives. We are really enjoying watching her grow and develop. I don't think we could possibly love her any more than we do!