Haddie Mae: 5 months

Dear Haddie Mae,
At five months...

• You breastfeed 6 or so times a day for about 10-15 minutes (I'm loving your quicker eating time!) and you eat rice cereal once a day. After trying it for 3-4 days you got REAL SERIOUS about your food! You would eat the spoon if I'd let you.
• You go to sleep around 8pm and you have stopped having to do a full nursing session before bed. You will sometimes sleep through til 6:30/7 and sometimes wake up to eat around 5 then go back to sleep til 8.
• You went through a phase this month of needing your paci put back in 5-6 times a night, but luckily you grew out of that and now you only use it to fall asleep
• You wear size 2 diapers
• You weigh 14 lbs
• Your hair is finally growing back in where you rubbed it off in the back and some people think it looks more strawberry blonde now
• Your favorite toy right now is your paci. You take it in and out of your mouth and look at it and chew on it from every direction
• You love when I sing to you, this gets the biggest smiles out of you all day long
• Your nap schedule is still unsettled since we're on the go so much, but you do usually take one long nap (hopefully when brother does!) that's about 1.5-3 hours and a couple of catnaps that last about 30-45 minutes.
• You are finally sleeping in your crib at night, but you have to stay swaddled. You are taking a longer time than brother to grow out of your startle reflex, so if your arms aren't swaddled you wake yourself up and cry.
• You still nap in your swing, you will hopefully start napping in your crib this month
• You have rolled over... once! So I know you can do it, haha. But you still throw up most of the time you're on your tummy so you prefer being on your back or side.
• If I'm in the room, even really far away, you will track my voice wherever I go. I love this SO much.
• You are wearing 3 month clothes and some 3-6 month clothes, although they are too long on you. You have to wear 6-9 month+ headbands though because you have a pretty big head like brother!
• You have started laughing at your toys
• Your big brother calls you "Bay-be Hah-deee" and it's super sweet :)
• You were dedicated this past Sunday with your cousin Madeline. At one point you found each other's hands (not that you knew what you were grabbing) and held onto each other. I love watching you grow together!
• When you are nursing or falling asleep you constantly rub your feet together, like you're trying to create a fire! You also do it if I'm trying to put you to sleep and you are fighting me. It's definitely unique to you, Titus never did that.

Yesterday morning the best thing ever happened. When you woke up I went to get you from your crib and I carried you into the living room. Grandma and Opa were there playing with Titus and as I started to talk to them, you just snuggled your little head right into my chest and held onto my arms. I'm sure your brother did this, but I don't remember when he did it for the first time. I swear, Haddie Mae, I didn't move my feet from that spot for a solid 5 minutes because I just wanted to stay in the moment forever. Can I tell you a secret? One day, you will be a very big girl, too big for me to carry you around on my hip like I do now. And when you become a big girl some very sad or scary things may happen to you. But guess what? You can always lay your head on my chest when you need a snuggle. You will never, ever be too big for me to wrap my arms around you and hold you tight.
We love you to the moon and back, baby girl.