So many exciting new things!

Tomorrow Hailey turns 5 months old (stay tuned for pics!) and this 4th month of her life has brought many new exciting developmental changes.

First, and this not so exciting, we had a couple weeks of really bad sleep. Hailey would wake up screaming every hour or so. I believe this is what is called the "4 month wakeful period" in which their brains are developing so much and they are so stimulated that they don't want to sleep. Then daddy, the newfound "baby whisperer" decided to try a couple new tricks - he started leaving the hallway light on (turns out she was afraid of the dark!) and he tied up one of my shirts around her crib so Hailey could smell me. Now when she wakes up she doesn't scream because she knows where she is and feels comfortable. Sometimes I'll have to run in to pop in her pacifier, but usually she just goes right back to sleep, and has been sleeping from about 10 p.m. to 9 a.m.! We all are feeling so much better now that we are getting good sleep!

At our 4 month doctor appointment, the pediatrician told us we could begin feeding Hailey solid foods (cereal, veggies, fruit) anytime we felt she was ready. A couple days later I tried feeding Hailey some rice cereal, but she was not a fan. She started crying and got really upset, it just wasn't as fast and easy as her bottle. So I waited a couple weeks and decided to try again with some oatmeal. It took a couple tries, but now she really likes the oatmeal (I mix it with apple juice to give it a little flavor!) and she gets so excited when I put her in her Bumbo to eat. She opens her mouth wide so I can give her a bite, so cute!

Tomorrow to celebrate her 5 month birthday I am going to start Hailey on her veggies. You are only supposed to feed them one veggie for at least 3 days at a time (to make sure they don't have any allergies), so I'm going to start with squash. I really hope she likes it, I can't wait to see her reaction! So we'll do a few days of squash, then probably switch to peas or green beans, then carrots or sweet potatoes. I'm planning to feed her veggies for about a month, then around 6 months will introduce fruits also. It's going to be so much fun! And messy, haha!

In the last week or so, Hailey has finally figured out how to roll from her belly to her back, though she doesn't do it all the time. Some days she'll roll over 5 times in one round of "tummy time" and other times she won't do it at all. So I guess she's still sorta figuring it out. But she's getting so strong, and pushes herself way up, then if she's not too scared she'll sort of rock herself over onto her back, it's so cute and she looks so proud of herself when I start clapping for her!

I just can't believe Hailey is going to be 5 months, seriously where has the time gone?! It's just so crazy that she will probably be crawling in the next couple months, oh boy are we in trouble!