20 weeks old already, whereeeeee is time going?!

It’s that time again… Reuben’s 5 month update is here! During the past month he has become so mobile, I can’t believe it. This kid is now on the move and he can’t even crawl yet! I’ve even now got him into a daily routine so keep reading to find out how I’m getting him to sleep at night and what new tricks he’s learnt…

On the Move:

At 18 weeks old, Reuben learnt to roll. He sat up before he learnt to roll and I think it’s usually the other way around but then I’ve never really given him much tummy time to learn because he’s never liked being on his stomach much. Even now, I’ll put him on his tummy on the floor to play and after about 10 minutes he starts crying because he’s fed up of it. Maybe he’ll never like it, who knows. He sure does like to roll about though! He actually rolled off my bed the other night, I had no idea he was capable of moving around that much yet but apparently he is! He was fine by the way, my bed is really low down so no harm done. If I lie him on the floor he will instantly roll over onto his tummy so I think he likes to be on it, just not for long periods of time. He also keeps escaping his bouncer and all of a sudden he will be sat on the floor or lying on it on his tummy and it’s like, how did you get there kid?! It’s mental. I won’t be surprised if he’s crawling next as he seems to be able to move quite far across the room just wriggling about.

Terrible Twos:

For the majority of the time, Reuben is a very happy and well behaved baby, but sometimes. SOMETIMES. He can be quite naughty. I mean I guess you can’t expect any less from a baby can you? But yeah, sometimes I feel like we’ve hit the terrible twos already, even though he’s only a few months old. When he has these moments, he seems to have a full on tantrum, kicking, screaming, hitting, scratching… he likes to pull anything near him over his face or just anything near him in general. These things include my clothes and my hair which is always fun! So yeah, god help me when he’s actually a toddler. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t do it on purpose, he’s only a little baby still, but try telling me that at the time (lol.)

Pretending to be a Puppy:

So I think it’s a well known fact that babies like to put anything and everything in their mouths, well Reuben likes to lick anything near his face. He will literally sit there in his pram licking away at the zip on his coat or something. It’s really weird but hilarious at the same time… I think he just likes to pretend he’s a lil puppy or something. Playing: I treated Reuben to a Jumperoo recently and he is smitten with it. He just sits there bouncing away for absolutely ages, it’s so so cute. I’ve noticed quite a few other mums using cushions underneath their babies feet but he’s such a tall baby that he can reach the floor fine! He got the hang of it pretty quickly too which I think was quite impressive to say he hadn’t ever used anything like this before. He loves to sit in it in front of CBeebies and just bounce to his hearts content. He also falls asleep in it all the time, I genuinely think he bounces himself to sleep! He really plays with toys now, he loves grabbing them and picking them up. He’s started pulling the toys on his play gym so hard that it ends up collapsing on him! I left him in his cot the other day and went back in to see that he had grabbed one of his teddies from the corner and was playing with it. IT WAS SO ADORABLE.

Sitting:

He hasn’t sat up on his own since he did it for the first time, but he will always sit up if he has something to support him or to hold onto next to him. I don’t try to help him to sit up at all, I’ll let him do it in his own time, I’m sure he will when he’s ready. I think it’s really important to let babies get there in their own time rather than try and get them to do things early. He is actually now in the seat part of his pram, we’ve ditched the carrycot as he loves to sit up and watch the world go by when we’re out and about.

Weaning:

I’ve been weaning him since 17 weeks and it’s going really well. He had the eating part mastered within a few days and he eats both vegetables and fruit. He’s quite fussy with his vegetables as he prefers carrot & swede over sweet potato which is a bit strange but hey, we all like what we like right? He loves his fruit especially but hates the chocolate pudding I bought him! Clearly not a chocolate addict like his mama. His daddy got me the baby nutribullet kit and I absolutely love it, it’s so handy. The nutribullet itself is fab and it comes with little pots to refrigerate as well as ones you can put in the freezer so you can make batches, it’s ideal!

Growing:

My little chunk is practically in 6-9 month clothes now, if I buy him any new clothes, that’s the size I go for as it’s pointless buying 3-6 now, they will only fit him for a few more weeks. He does only have one month to go until he hits 6 months anyway so it’s not like he’s huge, he’s just a little chubster!

Getting into a Routine:

He started waking up 3 times a night for feeds and I was getting absolutely exhausted, it was worse than when he was a newborn. So I decided to put him into a routine a few days ago which is bath, bottle and bed by 9pm. Sometimes it’s a bit later if he’s had a late nap but the routine stays the same. I try not to pick him up if he cries and just soothe him instead but it’s been going pretty well so far. He hasn’t actually cried as much as I thought he would surprisingly. When I’ve gone in to soothe him back to sleep, he has got really upset when he’s seen me leave. He tends to grab hold of my hand to stop me going which I think is absolutely heartbreaking but he has to learn that being in his cot means he has to sleep. He slept the other night for a good 8 hours straight in his cot so I was so happy! He also has stopped having night feeds which means he never actually needed them, I just thought he did. He goes a good 10 hours now without a feed every night which is fab that we’ve already knocked out that. I think he already associates his cot with sleep so if he’s not tired he will cry as soon as I put him down but he’s quite good at closing his eyes when it goes dark and trying to get to sleep. He used to do it when he slept in my bed as soon as I turned the lights off so he’s already quite sleep trained in that sense. I’ve got a night light that plays stars all over the ceiling and the walls in different colours which he loves too. I’m just going to keep up with the routine in the hope that eventually he will sleep a full 12 hours, it will do bloody wonders for me and my sleep!