Fifth month baby update
2021-Oct-13, Wednesday 08:36How is it five months already? 
Laila is big enough now that we can't in good conscience call her Little Baby Laila anymore and have started calling her Big Baby Laila. I can't carry her in the crook of my arm when I'm walking around with her, but she's wiggly enough that even if I could hold her there it wouldn't work. She can't crawl yet--she still doesn't have the muscle coordination to move her arms and legs in the right pattern--but her attempts have her slowly scooting backward when she's on the floor, and she'll often drift in a circle when she's rolling over. She can't sit up on her own either but she needs less and less help as time goes on. Even though she can't do it on her own, she loves standing up and jumping.
She has much more interest in our comings and goings. There are times when I'll enter the room and she'll clearly have been wanting to see me because she starts wiggling much harder and smiles at me.
She doesn't know how to laugh yet, and she's actually pulled back from some of her earlier attempts to. She used to have a strange gasping laugh that
sashagee is pretty sure from trying to imitate her, but she hasn't done that in weeks. She just silently giggles, but that doesn't mean she's silent. She's over in her swing babbling right now as
sashagee plays with her.
The biggest change though is that now she's eating!

In the last month we served Laila her first meal and reviews were mixed. She loved eating it but her tummy had a lot of trouble with her food--the oatmeal was especially bad but even the applesauce didn't go down smoothly--so we waited a couple weeks to try again. When we went to the apple orchard last weekend,
sashagee's father offered Laila an apple and she spent several minutes just sucking on it and trying to get as much of her mouth on it as she could, so yesterday
sashagee made some pumpkin purée and Laila eagerly ate it, and she didn't have any more stomach trouble than usual! All of her fussing at night was well within the expected degree of night fussing.
She has more awareness of the world around her. Originally she used to stare at mirrors and probably thought there was another baby there looking at her, but recently
sashagee saw her looking at various objects in the mirror and then looking at the objects around her, so she's realizing that the mirror reflects the world rather than being a portal to another one. She loves watching the sky, and when we go for walks in the evening she'll often stare up at the clouds rather than looking at us or the buildings around her.
What changes will come next?

Laila is big enough now that we can't in good conscience call her Little Baby Laila anymore and have started calling her Big Baby Laila. I can't carry her in the crook of my arm when I'm walking around with her, but she's wiggly enough that even if I could hold her there it wouldn't work. She can't crawl yet--she still doesn't have the muscle coordination to move her arms and legs in the right pattern--but her attempts have her slowly scooting backward when she's on the floor, and she'll often drift in a circle when she's rolling over. She can't sit up on her own either but she needs less and less help as time goes on. Even though she can't do it on her own, she loves standing up and jumping.
She has much more interest in our comings and goings. There are times when I'll enter the room and she'll clearly have been wanting to see me because she starts wiggling much harder and smiles at me.

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The biggest change though is that now she's eating!

In the last month we served Laila her first meal and reviews were mixed. She loved eating it but her tummy had a lot of trouble with her food--the oatmeal was especially bad but even the applesauce didn't go down smoothly--so we waited a couple weeks to try again. When we went to the apple orchard last weekend,
![[instagram.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/profile_icons/instagram.png)
![[instagram.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/profile_icons/instagram.png)
She has more awareness of the world around her. Originally she used to stare at mirrors and probably thought there was another baby there looking at her, but recently
![[instagram.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/profile_icons/instagram.png)
What changes will come next?