I cannot believe Isla is halfway to 1 year old. Did I not just give birth to this little angel?

This little lady is blowing us away with how much she has learned in such a short amount of time.

Crawling
Isla can now crawl! Just a few days ago she took several crawls in a row, and she hasn't stopped since. She even crawled to her pediatrician today at her appointment. This of course completely surprised the doctor because it isn't until 9 months that babies typically crawl.

Pulling Up
I had to move Isla's crib mattress down a notch because she is now pulling herself up in her crib. She is doing it now as I type this. This is making nap time much more difficult.

Sitting Up
One milestone that I wasn't expecting to see was Isla putting herself in the seated position! She has been able to sit up on her own for a while, but a week or so ago she got on her hands and kness then scooted herself back and sat up right.

Eating
We recently started Isla on solids as well. I thought I would make it to 6 months, but I caved at 5 months and 1 week. She just seemed so interested in food. We are skipping baby cereal and purees and going the baby-led weaning route. Her first ever bite was of a banana. She isn't too keen on those yet. But we've also given her avocado, tomato, cucumber, peach, mashed potato and spaghetti. She definitely prefers her veggies.


Although Isla has only been in our lives for a short time, I can't remember a time without her. She has brought so much light and happiness into our family. I love her more than anything! Robby and I keep talking about more kids. If they all turned out to be as amazing as Isla, I would probably have 15. I love being pregnant, giving birth and being a mom.

Height: 27" (95th percentile)

Weight: 18.8 pounds (90th percentile)

Loves: Cucumbers, our dogs, pulling hair, and putting everything in her mouth.

Hates: Having her clothes changed and sitting still.

Milestones: Crawling, pulling up, putting herself in the sitting position, first tooth and eating solids!

Clothing/diaper Size: size 4 diapers and she is almost out of all 3-6 month clothing and fitting more into 9 months.

Looking Forward To: Our first family vacation in March!

Robby has said this a few times, and I have to agree, having a baby was the best decision we ever made. We have never been so happy and in love than we are now. Every day we are just blown away by how much she learns and changes.

At 5 months Isla is mobile. No she's not walking or crawling, YET, but she is using a combination of rolling and scooting to get to where she wants to go. We now have to use pillows as barriers to keep her from getting onto the hardwood floor. For some reason she loves to lick/suck on the floors. We also don't want her to continue rolling and banging her head on the floor. Although, she does bump her head a lot and rarely seems fazed by it. Little B is one tough cookie.

Crawling
As I said, she isn't crawling yet, but she is starting to get up on her knees in the crawling position. I cannot get over how much babies can advance and learn in such a short amount of time. I know she will be crawling by the end of the month because she will work on getting up on her knees for an extended period of time. She just doesn't give up, and she only starts to get frustrated when she starts to get tired. The same thing happened when she started trying to roll from back to tummy. She practiced for three days straight until she got it.


Sitting
Sitting up is something she's fiercely improved on this month. She could always sit up in our laps and if we were holding her hands, but now she can sits up on her own. OK, not 100% of the time, but for extended periods of time. She can hold onto toys and look up and not topple over. To be honest I think she falls over on purpose sometimes because she thinks it's fun. She does catch herself a lot of the time though. But just like crawling, I think she will have it down pat by the end of the month.

Eating
With all of these crazy advancements she's making, I do have control over one thing, what she is eating. She is still exclusively breastfed. I am doing my very best to hold off on solids until she is 6 months old (only one more month!). I've read that their digestive systems can better handle solids at that age. But she is acting so interested in food and drinks recently, that I don't know if I can keep her waiting. I know she is ready, but I don't think I am. Everything is happening so quickly! I did give her one of the netted feeding teethers with frozen breast milk, and she loved it!

Sleeping
We are currently trying to wean Isla from her night feeding. She was only waking up once to eat, but occasionally it was twice. Although she would only eat for five minutes and go right back to sleep, I never felt well rested. I know for a fact she is not hungry when she wakes up at night. It is more out of habit than anything. I knew if I didn't do something about it now, then it would be much harder to stop in the future. So two night ago I let her cry it out in her crib. I know that sounds horrible and I'm the worst mom in the world, but I did it. I would check on her on the video monitor and go into her room to rub her back and calm her down every 5-10 minutes, so I knew she was fine. The first night we did this she went to bed at 8 PM, woke at 11 PM, cried for 10 minutes then went back to sleep, woke again at 2:30 AM, cried for an hour with me and Robby consoling her every so often. After that she went to sleep and woke at 5 AM when I fed her. Robby wakes at 5 AM most of the time anyway, so we are fine with that. After that she usually sleeps another 2 or 3 hours. The second night she went to bed at 7:30 PM, woke again around 11 or 12, cried for a tiny bit, went back to sleep, woke at 2 AM, cried for 10 minutes before I went in there and consoled her, and she stayed asleep after that. I can already tell this is working! I am hoping any praying that tonight (the third night) she will either sleep through the night or at least not need me to come console her. I forgot to mention that we are putting her down awake, so she will learn to put herself to sleep.

We are doing the same thing for naps right now too, which she has never had an issue with. She usually take 2 three hour naps and one or two 30 minute naps. But sometimes they would be in her swing, which we have now given to her cousin Kohen, so we don't have that crutch anymore. Fingers crossed we will have a baby that will put herself to sleep very soon!

Other
A few small things: Her hand-eye coordination is on point. She puts EVERYTHING in her mouth. She stays awake longer and has recently stopped fighting sleep as much. I hope this means the 4 month sleep regression is ending. She also had her very first Christmas and new years! I made two small new years resolutions: stop drinking coke and take a picture of Isla every day. I think it will be fun to look at her progression over a full year.



Height: 26 1/2' (estimation)

Weight: 17.8 pounds (estimation) 

Loves: Mama. She is in the clingy stage right now.

Hates: I can't think of anything...

Milestones: She is reaching every milestone a 5-month-old should be.

Clothing/diaper Size: size 4 diapers and clothing size depends on the brand. Some 3-6 month, some 6 mont and even some 9 month. 

Looking Forward To: Watching her crawl for the first time! She has been working so hard at it, so I know she will feel so accomplished once she finally does it. Although I know she will be much harder to keep up with.