Brayden is 5 months old today!!! I have thoroughly enjoyed his newborn stage WAY more than I enjoyed Tucker. I'm sure much of that can be chalked up to having already had a baby so a lot of the adjustment and new baby stress/confusion I had gone through already, but Brayden, as I've said before, is SO much easier as an infant than Tucker was. Just yesterday we were at the park and he just fell asleep in his carseat in the stroller-something Tucker never did-without a peep. Then when he woke up 45 minutes later he proceeded to hang out-without a peep-even ask the kids were pulling on his carseat toys and shaking the stroller around (he was clicked/strapped in very well, don't worry).
I am trying very hard to just enjoy his cuddles, because I know it won't be long until he is on the move and not interested in sitting and cuddling as much. He has mastered the back to front roll and is capable of the front to back roll, although not as interested in demonstrating it as frequently. He has the biggest smile and will smile at most anything-he's a great audience. He especially loves to see himself in the mirror-or when Tucker comes up and says, "gig a gig a gig" or something like that, and it makes him laugh. They are fostering such a great brotherly bond already. B looks for T when he hears him and will stare at him and screech until Tucker looks his way. Thankfully Tucker is a fan of him as well.
B has started to enjoy playing in his exersaucer, and Tucker has also rekindled his relationship with it as well. He climbs in it and tries to take the toys that B is playing with on it. It's a good lesson in sharing for both of them I guess! Brayden likes to push the buttons and spin the bird toy. He can sometimes move the monkeys, but they don't go very far.
He still likes his playmate, although playing on a big blanket is better for him now since he's rolling. He has loved going outside with Tucker and thankfully is ok being in his carseat, as long as his binky is available. It's hard to wear him because I can't pick T up to put in his swing with B on my front. He also seems to like going for walks-he fell asleep on one earlier this week.
He has still been sleeping great through the night and many of his naps actually happen now without him waking up 45 minutes in.
He loves to kick his legs and wave his arms. You can most always see him with a finger or fist in his mouth. He has managed to get his whole fist in quite a few times. He thoroughly enjoys baths and still likes his crib mobile-a huge plus when I need to put him somewhere that Tucker can't get to him.
His biggest news this month is that we have finally broken the swaddle habit (i posted about this a couple days ago). As I said in my previous post, there must be something wrong with me because my kids don't just grow out of the swaddle. Maybe they would eventually but letting Tucker be swaddled until he was 6 months old was WAY too long to swaddle a baby (in my opinion at least). Brayden thankfully kicked it at 4.5 months! Just under a week of crying/terrible napping, we got our first no-cry-two-hour-nap! Woo Hoo! Makes all the cry it out-ing worth it. He still has some naps that are only 45 min, but we can usually get him back to sleep with his binky, in the swing, or just rocking him a bit.
He's still on the same schedule pretty much but some days he is kicking his cat-nap at dinner time. So sometimes he drops one of his bulk-feeds (6ish) and then just goes to bed/eats his last feed a little earlier, approx. 730ish.
Max loves being able to just cuddle with B and one of our favorite times is when we get him up in the morning (although Max usually goes in to get him) because he's just lying there smiling-whether we wake him up or he gets up and is just talking to himself.
He's so long already compared to Tucker so it will be interesting to see how they compare as they grow up. We feel very blessed to have Brayden's sweet and calm demeanor as a part of our family. He has been screeching VERY loudly lately (he's also an incredibly loud crying-it will hurt your eardrums!) so I know he's got some crazy in there! I am SO excited to see what the next month brings for him! It's my last month home also before I go back to work for 2 months. I am sad that I will most likely miss his first crawl, etc. but I am so thankful that I will have had 6 months home with him-1 month more than with Tucker!
We love you VERY much Brayden!
It took awhile for me to get a smile out of Brayden (a rare problem) for these pictures today...probably because THIS was going on...not really sure why he was upset, but he came running in to B's room and was clearly not happy...I'm aware that my normally cute almost 2 year old looks abnormally scary and funny looking-sorry T but it's true:) and yes I was taking his picture while he was pouring out tears and screams...and snot!
