5 Months!

Time is flying! On Thursday, Gemma was 5 months old! She has changed and learned so much in the past month. She can now roll from her back to her tummy, grasps and manipulates her toys (mostly putting them into her mouth!), and is really enjoying her jumperoo. She has discovered her feet and likes to play with them, but she can't quite get them to her mouth yet! When she is awake, she is a happy, smiley girl, and she has been giggling more and more, especially when Daddy makes her 'fly'! For some reason, she also thinks the word 'quinoa' is hilarious and gets a big, silly grin on her face every time we say it! She has liked all the foods we have tried so far (sweet potatoes, squash, apples, and pears) and now gets a few spoonfuls twice a day.

Since we've been back at our place and things have settled down, I've been working really hard on establishing a daily routine for Gemma, especially for nap and bed times. I've also been trying to get her laid down for naps. Unfortunately things aren't improving very much. Every nap, bedtime, and middle of the night are a struggle to get her to sleep, even though I've been trying really hard to catch her when she first becomes sleepy and before over tiredness kicks in. Some nights this past week she was up 3 times, and for up to 2 1/2 hours at a time. She also wakes as soon as I try to lay her down for naps. I've tried the putting her down drowsy but awake, but have yet to have success with that either.

I know that her sleep issues stem from her reflux and tummy problems. At the time, when she was in so much pain, we had to do whatever it took to get her to sleep. Then, once those issues were controlled with medication and formula, she got a bad cold and we were away from home for over 6 weeks. Unfortunately she has not learned how to 'self soothe' yet and has developed so many sleep crutches, primarily because we were in 'survival mode' for so long. Now I feel as if we're caught in a bit of a vicious circle. I try to get her to sleep on her own, lay her down, etc, but she wakes, becomes over tired, then fights the sleep some more. So, this may sound a bit crazy, but tomorrow we have a consultation via Skype with a sleep consultant based down in Cork. She is a 'gentle sleep coach', as at this age, I wouldn't be able to let Gemma full-on 'cry it out'. After tomorrow's consult we will have a plan to teach Gemma how to put herself to sleep, then we will have weekly follow-ups for 4 weeks to monitor and make adjustments. She claims that most people see improvements in 4-6 days and almost always within 2 weeks. I know it will be hard work, and likely less sleep and more tears for awhile, but in the end it will be worth it!

So enough rambling on about sleep. Gemma has brought us so much joy and happiness in the past 5 months. She is getting to the age where she is doing something new almost every day, and it is amazing.

Here are some of her 5 month pics. It's getting harder to keep her in one place, and all she wanted to do was eat the lion!















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