Emmett's Whole Life Has Changed.

So last night, before I went to bed, I decided to read a little "What to Expect the First Year". I am not good at reading that book (in fact, I'm really not good at reading any book), but oddly, last night I was curious about it. I went to "Month 5" which describes what your baby will be doing at that age.

I was stunned.

At 5 months, Emmett will be starting foods (vegetables, fruits & cerael). He'll be learning to drink with a sippy cup. He'll be sitting up. His attention span is more developed. As I'm reading these things, I was realizing that we have been treating Emmett like he's 2 months old for 5 months! We have no real toys out for him (besides stuffed animal cars that beep) and it occurre dto me that he's bored.

Suddenly, I remembered this strange kind of intellectual toy that we have on display on his room. I've always assumed it was far too old for him. But I suddenly had this memory (that happened the day before). I was trying to rock a crying Emmett to sleep and his body was pulled away from me, his head turned and neck straining to look at that toy. He was STARING at it. For some reason, it never occurred to me that he would want to play with it.

I reported this information to Mike (who was also stunned), and today, Emmett's entire life changed. He got up and we played fly and the regular games, I took him over to my mom's for a visit with Diane, and THEN....he played kick and play with his new "in crib" kick piano..and then he was bouncing in his door bouncer...and then he was sitting (fascinated) in his stationary bouncer (which is really crazy with tons to do. Then, Mike played with all these adult toys. I played real games with him and gave him a massage. Finally, I took him to the gym.

He fell asleep the entire time.

On the way home, I bought him rice cerael and a sippy cup. This is going to be a big transition for our little family. I'm excited for Emmett to get into rice cerael. As it currently stands, he doesn't seem satisfied by my milk. I never feel like he's full and it never seems to be enough. There is always a fight, he's always moving his head to the side and making cry sounds.

I'm also a little concerned because Emmett was fussy again today and I don't know why. He was crying a lot when we got home from the gym. He also cried inconsolably this morning. I don't want to overreact, but this is not his personality — unless its changing. We tried to take his temperature, but we couldn't get it.

I may call the doctor tomorrow...I'm not sure.

Overall, I felt like a good mom today. The only incident that happned that made me feel awful, was this morning at7 AM (2 hours after his last feeding) Emmett started crying for food. And I said (very irritated "Aw Emmett!" and he started really crying, as if he understood that I was bothered to feed him. It broke my heart and I apologized sincerely to him.

But I was good in every other way. I took him out, I played with him, I read up about his age group, I kissed him...I even canceled Ana's band practice becasue I knew he needed to sleep and didn't want to have him out that late. I am a good mom, I'm realizing. It just took writing it all down to see it.

Posted by: Elisabeth / 12:22 AM