Moving right along

Ever since before Cassie was born I've been wanting to start a blog. I had lists in my head of all of the things I was going to talk about, advice and wisdom to dole out to any new moms. Of course once I started it I didn't get around to writing again for three months...surprise surprise...

So Cassie is 10 days short of being 5 months old. She was always so serious, until on her 4 month birthday she started giggling. She was already smiling, but now its so amazing. Ever since her first one, I am totally addicted to hearing her laugh. It is the most magical sound I've ever heard. Now she's totally ticklish. She likes funny noises, and pretty much any song will make her smile. She giggles whenever she is naked, included when she is being changed (especially being wiped). I'm just so glad that I can see her personality develop and now I know when she is happy.

However in the last week she has also decided that she isn't particularly interested in nursing anymore. It has been fairly difficult to get her to take a bottle at all sometimes, but today she only wanted to nurse twice. I think part of the problem is that my milk takes quite a bit to come down, and she loses interest if it is not there right away. I can't seem to figure out how to make it come down faster though. My breasts stopped responding to pumping over a month ago, so I can't even pump it out to keep the supply up or to give it to her through the few bottles she will take.

I know its normal at this age for eating habits to change significantly, but this is especially frustrating. It is reminiscent to me of her first week when she wouldn't eat because she was sick. I am fairly certain she feels fine though, but I still feel like I am forcing her to eat all the time. It is also frustrating because I haven't been making enough milk for her to just nurse even when I am home, but after so many weeks of trying and her being disappointed with the bottle instead of the breast, she wants it the other way around :-(

I was thinking about weening her soon anyway, since I did start a new job and will be working a lot over the next couple of months. Just to make life a little easier for me, and so maybe she wouldn't miss me as much while I'm working. But I wanted it to be up to Joshua and me...stubborn little monkey.

The Dr. told us at her 4 month checkup that it is now recommended for babies to wait until they are 6 months to start them on solids, even on rice cereal. It is driving me nuts though because EVERYONE else I know has started their babies already. I know that she has the rest of her life to eat real food, and that it will make it that much sweeter if we do wait until 6 months. I'm just kind of dreading the day that someone will ask me about it, and that they will think I am dumb for waiting.

She has been exploring with her tongue a lot more, even just sticking it out and licking her lips when she isn't eating. She studies us eating very carefully. These things, combined with her recent change in eating, make me want to start her on real food sooner. ACK. Pressure. I don't think there is anything negative that will come with her waiting, I just don't want to feel like she is behind other babies. I want to feel confident in my decisions in the way she is being raised.

She has kind of started rolling over. About 2 1/2 weeks ago she did it on the flat floor, by herself for the first time. The next few days she did it several times each day. Then she went about a week without doing it at all. Yesterday, she did it twice. She seems to just have a wide variety of interests at this point. She has started sitting in her bouncy chair for much longer, which makes doing things in the kitchen much easier.

She's been sleeping through the night since we went on vacation when she was 10 weeks old, so that definitely makes life a lot easier. However I had insomnia for about a month, even after working until midnight. Working two jobs has taken that away though!