Miss Zoe at 5 Months

Aside from the amazing developments that occur at this age, the other big news at 5 months is that Miss Zoe's hair has started filling in. Her male-pattern baldness is pretty much gone and her hair color looks brown in dark light and blonde in bright light. At the beginning and middle of January, she barely had any hair on the top of her head and by the time she turned 5 months on February 9th, it mostly filled in. The change happened so quickly and her hair continues to noticeably grow on an almost daily basis. Her eyes remain blue.

Miss Zoe, 5 months on February 9th

Excited about her giraffe, or maybe that her hair is coming in!

We don't have an update on Zoe's height and weight since there weren't any doctor's appointments last month. Thankfully, our little girl has been very healthy (aside from her sensitive skin) and continues to grow like a weed. We've transitioned her completely from the 6-9 month clothing to 9 month clothes. I thought she would be in summer stuff at 9 months, so I'm glad that we had some cooler weather outfits on hand from Rose (who wore 9 month clothes at 8-9 months, not at 5 months!). 

I've tried to remain dairy and egg-free as much as I can, with occasional indulgences in chocolate candy or a bite of a non-vegan dessert. Usually when I indulge, we have to treat Zoe's face/skin with more lotion, or hydro-cortisone. I've continued to use a 0.5% hydro-cortisone to treat flare ups and we get by using just using Eucerin or Cetaphil most days. The cold weather in January and early February meant the heat was on and the air was fairly dry, so we had to lather her up with moisture often. We've also been sure to keep a humidifier on all night in her room.

Enjoying fresh air in the exersaucer

On the topic of sleep, Miss Zoe continued to nurse once or twice overnight through 5 months. For a stretch of time, she was doing well going to bed around 7:30-8pm. I'd usually give her a "dream feed" before I went to bed at 10:30-11:30p, and she would wake up between 3-5am for another feed. Most mornings, Rose's not-so-quiet voice would wake her up for the day around 7am. 

Getting serious for the camera

We've been fortunate to have my mom in town to take care of Zoe during her 5th and 6th months so that we can delay day care until after the cold weather (and hopefully the flu and most germs) passes. With more one-on-one attention, my mom's been able to work with Zoe on sitting up, tummy time, and socialization. Zoe is a strong, but heavy girl with lots of rolls. She can sit up fairly well, but topples over when she loses her balance or if she reaches for something. We've started putting her in the exersaucer so she isn't laying down all the time. She plays for fairly long stretches of time before taking a break to rest her legs. She's also started transitioning out of the infant car seat and into the stroller seat in the running stroller and in the double umbrella stroller. She loves sitting up and seeing everything as we walk.

One of the first times sitting in the running stroller

We are starting to see Zoe's personality develop at this age. She is very attentive and loves watching her family, especially Rose and Darwin. Darwin's barks often startle her, but she is not scared. Rose's hugs and not-so-gentle ways also often startle her, but she is more accepting than I would have anticipated. She seems to love music and children's songs, especially those that we sing at baby story time at the library and those we sing at home. Rose is a great big sister who often sings songs to Zoe. When we are around groups of people, especially other children, Zoe loves to talk and participate in the discussion.

Zoe Talking at 4.5 months

Zoe giving her sister a big open-mouthed kiss

Zoe listening to her music at 5 months

Zoe is a very calm child who does not protest much, except when she is tired or hungry (or if we try cutting her nails - see comments below). She even tolerates wet and poop-filled diapers. On the topic of diapers, we are still using cloth diapers and have now transitioned her out of newborn/infant sized diapers and into the one-size, adjustable diapers. With two girls in diapers, and a bunch of diapers with stretched out elastics from two-years of use, I was getting ready to buy more when my mother came to the rescue and repaired the elastics on just about all of them. I did buy about 7 more since we do have both girls in diapers, but as Rose continues to work on potty training, I don't want to buy too many. Rose is in pull ups most days at school, so I have plenty of diapers for Zoe and only have to wash every 2-3 days. 

Zoe continues to get breast milk exclusively and she takes about 16-20 ounces from wake up until I get home from work. When she sees me, she almost always wants to nurse. From 6pm until 7:30pm, I feel like all I do is feed her. I try to enjoy my time with her because I know it will go fast, but sometimes it is hard to do when I'm hungry, tired, and/or have a toddler that also wants my attention. I continue to be very fortunate to have a private office where I can pump whenever I need to during the day and I'm grateful that it seems I can pump enough to meet her intake during the day. With her sensitivity to dairy and eggs in my diet, I'm nervous about giving her too much pumped milk from the fall. I'm also nervous about starting solid foods. I expect Zoe might have more food sensitivities/intolerances than Rose, and we have not had to deal with food allergies before. At 5 months, we had not yet started introducing solid foods, but did have Zoe sit in the high chair to enjoy family meal time with us. She isn't a big fan of sitting in the high chair and usually wants to get out after a short time, especially at dinner when she is getting tired.

Sitting in the high chair, reaching for the camera

I'll end the post with a few Zoe-isms:

• Zoe loves to cross her feet/legs. It's a habit she has had since the day she was born.
• Zoe hates having her nails trimmed or filed. Just holding her finger brings serious protests. Because she often scratches at her face, I end up filing or trimming her nails several times a week. It is an activity I dread
• Zoe can't contain her joy when we nuzzle her belly with our nose. She's also very ticklish under her arms
• Zoe isn't much of a cuddler. At night when I nurse and burp her, she either rubs her face on shoulder, or pulls away to look around, unless she is exhausted. Only then will she lay her head in my neck.
• Zoe is becoming increasingly distracted when nursing and wants to look at where sounds are coming from. Unfortunately, this is often painful for mommy since she doesn't always unlatch first.

My apologies for once again being a month behind schedule. I'll try to get the 6 month post up soon. There are lots of exciting updates to share from February! Stay tuned.