August 1! Happy 5 Months!
Emersyn the first part of month five in Cape Cod meeting a large portion of the Bell family. She loved seeing the new faces and having plenty of people to entertain her. She was a particular favorite of cousin Isabelle, Uncle Jim and Aunt Tracey. Emersyn was a fantastic traveller. I was worried about being the person with a crying baby on a four-plus hour flight, but Emersyn was nothing but smiles. On the way out to the Cape I made sure to feed her as the plan took off to help her ears adjust to the altitude. After feeding she was playing and giggly. She slept for a bit and then woke up to eat again just as we were landing. She did just as well on the way home.
We spent most of our days at the beach. Chris and I would usually end up getting to the beach after everyone else since we were running on Emi time and she would be napping when everyone else was leaving. At the beach she would play and be active until she started to get sleepy. Chris and I would either hold her while she slept or, as we eventually found worked just fine, we would lay her on a blanket in the shade. The sound of the ocean made a nice white-noise that would block out some of the external beach hubbub.
I'm not sure what Emersyn thought of the sand or the ocean water. She didn't seem too affected by either one. We did make sure to keep her covered and lathered in sunscreen most of the time.
Emersyn had a great time with Aunt Tracey, who shares the same birthday, except for each leap year when Tracey's birthday is on the 29th of February. Along with sharing the same birthday, Tracey also has a preauricular ear pit to match. Tracey was able to get some great laughs out of Emersyn with her play sneezing noises.
We would term the trip to the Cape a stellar success. Emersyn was fabulous on the way home and transitioned back to Utah time pretty well. A few mornings we woke up at five, which would have been 7 Cape Cod time, but she soon got the hang of allowing me to sleep in a little bit.
While at the Cape we figured Emersyn either got a cold or she was teething. She had a few rough nights where she woke up more than normal and she had cute little boogers every now and then. Emersyn was munching pretty hard on her fingers, and that made us lean more toward teething. We made a run to the grocery store to get some baby tylenol and ibuprofen just in case we needed something more. Not long after getting back to Utah I noticed Emi's swollen gums right over the spot where her two bottom teeth were coming in. Within a couple of days both teeth had broken through. I was amazed that at just over 5 months old Emersyn already had teeth. She still couldn't roll over, but she had teeth.
Now that she was five months old and was getting teeth we started advancing Emersyn's diet. We began with rice cereal. Emersyn didn't seem to care much for it. I heard that babies get excited over the taste and texture of the new foods, but I don't think it was much of a hit. In thinking about it, I'm not sure that rice cereal is much of a step up anyway.
We tried peas next since I heard that most babies don't like peas compared to other baby foods. I thought that maybe the new flavor would still be yummy to her. Not so much. She didn't make it very far through the baby food container and I think most of it ended up on her bib or in her lap.
The real winners were sweet potatoes, squash, and any of the fruits. One time I started feeding Emersyn some sweet potatoes, but she was so hungry and the food wasn't coming fast enough off the spoon, Emersyn tried to lick the drops of food that had fallen onto the tray of the baby chair. It was a funny sight.
I was enjoying my time as a mom and staying home and spending my days with my daughter was exactly what I wanted to do. I had debated about returning to work, but each time it crossed my mind and felt anxious and no desire to go back to the life of the OR nurse. I hadn't worked in a long time and I was perfectly happy to continue as I was. I didn't like the idea of trying to find babysitters. My mom had her hands full with Opa, and Richard's and Alex's kids so I didn't feel comfortable leaving her with anyone else. Plus, I found myself looking forward to spending time with her each day and wanted to be able enjoy her young age as much as possible. I would always keep my license current, and maybe one day go back. But for now it wasn't my course. Because I had hung on to my position at the surgical center during the time we were gone I had to drop the news to my employer, which is never fun, but felt good to do.
We continued to work on tummy time, though the outcome was still the same. Cousin Isaac, two months younger was more able when it came to rolling, and second cousin Fae turned from her tummy at one day over one week. Though we had no concerns about her development, and all babies do things in their own time, we kept working on it.
Until one day later in the month I had Emersyn on her tummy while I was emptying the dishwasher. She was doing her usual fussing that indicates she is sick of being on her belly. After a few minutes it got quiet and I looked and saw that she was on her back. I wasn't sure which method she had used to roll over, but I was glad she had figured it out. A few more tummy time drills and Emersyn seemed to get the hang of it more and more.
One of Emersyn's favorite places was her jumparoo, at least until she got tired. She loved being able to use her legs. She would often try and jump while standing on someones lap as if she was in the jumparoo. The various toys provided some stimulation and it gave me a few minutes to get things done. At times I would have to bring the jumparoo into the kitchen with me or right next to the laundry room because Emersyn would fuss if I was too far away.
She still liked to keep her toes curled under most of the time. We figured she would make a great ballerina she was already getting a lot of toe practice. Hopefully she doesn't end up with all the feet issues ballerinas get.
We started Emersyn on baby food not long after our return from the Cape. We didn't want to have to worry about all of the extra supplies needed for feeding a baby solids. And, we would be introducing new foods to her diet and didn't want to have an allergic reaction to something. The expansion from a diet of primarily breast milk went fairly smooth. We started with the rice cereal, which didn't seem like much of a step up from formula or breast milk, and Emersyn didn't seem all that excited about it either. After a couple of days we tried peas. I had heard that peas are one of the least favorites, so it is good to start with peas and vegetables because if you give sweeter foods first babies won't eat their veggies. Emersyn was not a fan of the peas and spit most of them out.
At first she was very messy and got most of the food on herself or me. I would take off her shirt or feed her with only a diaper on. With tastier foods and a little time Emersyn became quite skilled at eating. I didn't have to undress her every time a meal rolled around.
Chris and I became hearty users and supports of the video baby monitor. Our impetus for getting the monitor was to allow me to ride on the bike trainer and watch a movie or tv with headphones on and still be able to keep an eye on Emersyn and see when she wakes up. We transitioned to using it consistently during nap times and at night. I liked to make sure that Emersyn is asleep and that there are no blankets covering her face - as she would fall asleep she liked to pull on the edges of the blanket she was wrapped in and it would frequently end up covering her nose and mouth. Also, it saved me from jumping out of bed and running to check on Emersyn in the middle of the night when I thought I heard her crying, only she would be fast asleep. It was fun to watch Emersyn on the monitor and see how cute she was when by herself. We could even hear her adorable baby snoring.
One attribute Emersyn definitely received from her dad was snoring. Although her little baby snore was much cuter than Chris' and it didn't keep me up at night.
Another thing we got in the habit of doing was providing white noise during sleep and nap times when we were travelling. My mom thought it was a strange new idea and couldn't quite understand that we didn't just put our kids to sleep and expect them to stay asleep through the noise.
I loved that Emersyn was still in the sucking on the toes stage. She started bringing her toes to her face whenever she was on her back. This made diaper changing a little bit more difficult.
Part of Alex's birthday celebration was to hike to donut falls up Big Cottonwood Canyon. It was a great to take Emi on her first hike and test out our new baby backpack, now that she was big enough. Emersyn seemed to enjoy the hike and taking in the outdoor experience. She made her teddy-bear growling noises for most of the way to the falls. She seemed pretty
The rate at which Emersyn was growing was much faster than our muscles could keep up with. Throwing her in the air became more and more of a workout. We were waiting for our insurance to resume in September so we didn't have any official measurements, but new that she was growing and developing and were grateful for her health.
We tried to get Emersyn outside as much as possible. I would take her for walks around the neighborhood to get us both some fresh air and a change of scenery. We would often sit in the shaded parts of the front or back yard on the grass. Emersyn liked the feel of the grass on her legs and toes and often found a strand to munch on.
However, she was not fond of the grass being anywhere near her face and would start fussing and crying after she had tipped over and was laying in it.
It took a while before we could get a good view of those pearly whites. Emersyn seemed to have a bit of a stubborn personality where if I tried to open her mouth a little to get a look inside she would purse her lips or stick out her tongue.
Some of our favorite pictures from the month of August.
Jan Trying to get Emersyn to ride Oscar
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