5 Months Old!

Today Cooper is 5 months old! In the last month, we have met some triumphs and some new challenges. Oh this mother stuff is never boring!
In the "Yea Cooper!" category:

• In the last month, Cooper grew 3/4 of an inch and gained a half pound!
• He learned to roll over and is constantly doing so!
• He started eating solid food (rice cereal) and is doing great with it!
• He occasionally will take a longer nap during the day (all I used to get was 20 minutes at a time).

Yum Yum!  Rice Cereal!

In the "What am I going to do??" category:

We seem to be in some sort of phase where he is now back to waking up 3 and 4 times a night...it is a little hard on me because I had gotten used to only waking up once in the night. He has a lot working against him...he has been teething like crazy, which is what I think wakes him up in the first place, then he realizes that he is alone in his crib, and he doesn't want to be alone in his crib. Two weeks ago, when he was teething very badly and really couldn't sleep, I let him sleep in our bed with us. Now we can't seem to get him OUT of our bed. I have heard countless bits of advice and opinion on that fact, ranging from the light, "oh what does it hurt?" to the dreaded, "let him cry."
While I was torn about what to do, I sort of made my decision last night. The first three times he woke up, I soothed him enough to put him back to bed in his crib. On the fourth awakening, sometime around 4 a.m., I surrendered, mostly because I was afraid I would rock my own exhausted self to sleep in trying to rock Cooper to sleep. SO! I will continue to put him to bed in his crib every night at 9 p.m....and continue to try to get him back down once he wakes up, before 2 a.m. Anytime after 2, he can come sleep with us, b/c frankly I think I can be a better mom if I have a little bit of sleep.

Taking a nap in his favorite place: OUR BED!

I have been a mom long enough to know that a "spoiled" baby isn't the worst thing (if such a thing even exists). I am going to hope that once he gets through this teething episode and starts regularly eating solids, he will sleep better on his own. Maybe he will, and maybe he won't. In the meantime, Cooper will never despair over being left alone.

(Might I add, this is my FIRST child, so I think I can get away with a little "spoiling"...I'm sure I'll be singing a different tune should we ever have another child...)