Happy five month birthday, Presley!

 Here is what the pretty princess has been up to lately...

• At her doctor's appointment last month, Presley rolled over from her belly to her back very surely, almost as if she has been doing it all the time.  Since then, she has done it maybe once or twice more on accident.  She'll flip onto her side, but that's it.
• Bedtime is not my favorite time of the day here lately.  Getting her to sleep is such a struggle!  Her bedtime is pretty consistent but her wake time has not been and I know that lies on my shoulders!
• She's been doing better when it comes to sitting up.  Definitely not sitting up unassisted yet, but she is getting stronger at it each day.
• When she has belly time, she has just started to tuck her knees underneath her a bit!  So we're making (slow) progress towards scooting/crawling!  Not in ANY rush to have her racing around, though.
• She's finally starting to grow some of her hair back!  And it's so fluffy and adorable.
• She's in size 3 diapers, close to growing out of her 3-6 month clothes, and in 9 month sleepers already!
• I knew it was only a matter of time, but at 5 months of age, Presley has her first minor illness!  Seems like she's got a little cold - complete with a runny nose and all.  She wakes up sounding so congested, poor girl.  Hopefully my body will create some antibodies for her and we'll both get over this soon! (Either she passed it to me or I passed it to her -- either way, we've both got it, but hers is definitely worse.)
• It seems like she may have "found" her toes (FINALLY!) but it also seems like her legs might be too long or her to really grab and play with them!  It's so hilarious because when she's playing on her back, she'll grab her knees and hold onto them in the same way that other kids hold their toes.  It's pretty darn cute.
• Her eyes are still pretty blue!  I'm still wondering if they will change or stay the same.  We'll see!
• She basically only seems to want her pacifier at bedtime these days and I'm sure if we took it away from her now or sometime soon that she might not even miss it.  But considering it's one of the only things that seems to stop her cries at night, I am not ready to part ways with it just yet.
• Presley's definitely been eying our food more and more lately and seems to want to try what we've got!  This is exciting!  Last month I was so freaked out at the thought of starting her on solids, but now I just can't wait to see how she does with baby food!!!
• We got out the high chair because I wanted to introduce her to it and she absolutely HATED it!  She cried instantly when I put the tray on and the second time around she was alright for a minute or so but then started to cry.  Hopefully she'll just keep getting better and better with it.
• For the moment, she is enjoying being in water!  We haven't done too much lately with her and water (no pools, sprinklers, nothing recently!) but she likes the shower again and even tries to drink the water!  And it is so adorable.
• We've been having weekly play dates with a friend of mine who watches her nieces during the day (adorable twin girls) and I'm not sure who enjoys it more - me or her!  :) 
• Presley is counting down the days until her cousin Anne Marie makes her big debut!  While it could be any day now, there is no real rush for her to get here; we want her to stay put until her mommy & daddy have absolutely everything ready for her!  Hopefully we'll be able to make it down to Nashville to show all of them some love, too!
• She loves to smile and laugh and I really can't get enough of it!!!!

Big 5 month old!

So here we are, almost halfway to her first birthday!  Although I'm loving where she is currently at, I still find myself looking forward to her getting older.  Presley's always been such a sweet baby, but lately she's been more on the fussy/needy side.  (Which hey, it's to be expected:  She's a BABY!)  I'm not sure if it's because she's been a little under the weather lately, teething, or what... but at moments it's a little on the tough side! 

Not to mention, I think we've definitely been experiencing somewhat of a "sleep regression" which lots of moms swear takes place in the 4th month.  It's not fun rocking your baby over and over and over again and getting no where!  I just look forward to the days when it doesn't take nearly an hour of tears (on and off) to get her to sleep.  I've debated going back to swaddling her but I don't know if that's moving in the wrong direction or not?

All in all, things are still going very good and she is one incredible kiddo.  But holy moly, I cannot wait to sleep train once she hits the 6 month mark!  My plan over the next few weeks is to learn as much as I can about the Ferber Method (hopefully without having to buy the book -- going to get a hold of it from the library) so that Tony and I are prepared.  I would say the thing I'm most nervous about is making Presley adhere to a strict schedule. 

Up until this point, we've pretty much done everything on command and paid close attention to the cues Presley gives us when it comes to her being sleepy, hungry, etc.  So I am very apprehensive about that aspect of sleep training.  And I'm very worried when it comes to napping as she is usually all over the place when it comes to nap times. SO!  All you mamas out there, let me know if you've sleep trained, if you plan to, or how sleep is going in your home these days!

In other news, school is over for me by the end of this week and I could NOT be more excited and ready to kiss it GOOD BYE and have my Bachelor's Degree!  I was supposed to be done with my degree after summer school last year, but unfortunately I didn't pass a class that I needed to graduate.  On top of it, it was a pretty specific class that I needed and I couldn't make it work until now to take it.  I am just ready to have this monkey off my back!  We will then be one step closer to getting out of the Quad Cities and hopefully back to Tennessee!

Hope everybody had a happy Monday!  Hardest day of the week is over and we're all one step closer to the weekend.  :)