Shoshana: 5 months

Shosh's 5th month (November 13 - December 13)

The beginning of Shoshana's fifth month of life kicked off with quite the event- a nasty case of croup and a middle of the night trip to the ER. What fun!

Judah had brought home a cold from preschool earlier in the week (which turned into a double ear infection for him, poor dude). He was kind enough to share his cold with the rest of us. Shosh was bit congested and snotty but nothing crazy.

Then in the middle of the night (maybe around 2 am or so) I wake up to non-stop racking coughs coming over the monitors. It took me few drowsy moments to realize that the coughing was coming from Shosh, not Judah as I first suspected. I went into her room to find her doing that oh so recognizable barking cough of croup. Such a drop in the stomach feeling to find your baby struggling to breath.

Judah had croup one time about a year ago, so at least this time we knew what it was and knew what we could do. We bundled her up and took her outside into the cold night air. He sat with her for about 15 minutes and then brought her back in. I would be hard pressed to say if her cough improved at all from that.

We knew we needed to take her in, but weren't sure if we could just manage on our own until morning and bring her in during normal office hours (and avoid the extra cost of a ER trip). I called the advice nurse (or on call doctor? I don't remember know) for our doctor's office. She listened to Shosh breath and told me in no uncertain terms to CALL 911! Of course, this made me freak the fuck out. I mean, c'mon, a medical official is telling me to call 911. Don't wait until morning. Don't drive her to the ER myself. Call 911 NOW. I made Bill call as I was too freaked to do it myself.

Gert, the photo-bombing pug

The paramedics arrived a few minutes later, examined her and confirmed that she had croup (duh). They were nice guys and leveled with us that officially they have to recommend that they take her in the ambulance to the ER, but unofficially we would be fine taking her in on our own. So I took her in to Randall's while Bill stayed home with Judah (who slept through the whole fiasco).

We were seen right away and, as it turned out, by the same dr we saw last year when we brought Judah in during the middle of the night. I understand that the advice nurse had to play it safe and couldn't just say we could bring her in, because if something did happen she would potentially be liable (I guess?), but, still, so lame. Our healthcare system (and insurance too) is such a frustrating joke at times (read: all the time).

Okay, well other than that episode of extreme lameness Shosh's month was pretty much par for the developmental course. She developed a penchant for sleeping on her side.

Occasionally she would end up flipping all the way onto her belly when she attempted to side roll, get stuck, and then cry until someone (ahem, me) would come rescue her. She would also sometimes get her legs or arms stuck in the slats of her crib from all that rolling. Again, she would cry until I would come rescue her.

With all this night time rolling practice she became adept at rolling both directions. What a champ!

Shosh discovered her tongue this month. So many exciting things to discover when you are a baby. Once she figured out what it was and that, in fact, she could control it, she began to stick it out at us. All. The. Time. She definitely has a Monroe tongue. Both her dad and her auntie Em have oddly long tongues, which she seems to have inherited as well. I swear she can touch the tip of her chin with it!

By the end of the month she had progressed from being a side sleeper, to a full on belly sleeper. I guess it runs in the family as that is how both Willie and I prefer to sleep as well.

She got over her croup and was healthy for a week or so, but then got another cold (courtesy of her brother yet again). I was convinced she would end up with croup, but I'm glad to report that it was just a normal cold and never developed into croup.

Who's that I see back there?

When Shosh was a newborn we tried to EC her as often as we could. I found it awkward holding her over a potty since she was so small, but would hold her over an open diaper and cue her to pee in that. We found it tough to do much pottying with her after those first few weeks, because we had to split our attention between her and her brother and could not just sit there holding her for extended amounts of time waiting for her to pee... This month we started to slowly get back into it, as it was easier to sit her on her little potty.

Could it be?

Shoshana's nightly routine continued to consist of a warm washcloth rub and coconut oil. Still no immersion bath for her, not that anyone ever would have been able to guess that in 5+ months our daughter had never been in a tub or had soap on her. She was clean and happy and smelled like a yummy little coconut.

Yep! It is Gert, the photo-bombing pug!

From the first month or so we were pretty sure she was going to have brown eyes like her brother (and me). The inner part of the iris turned brown pretty quickly, but then it just kind of stopped. When Judah was 5 months his eyes had fully turned brown, but Shosh's still have that newborn gray ringing her outer iris. I'm guessing she will wind up with hazel eyes. My dad's eyes are hazel and all of Bill's family has light eyes (either blues or greens). Who knows when that outer color will develop.

The month ended with Shosh waking up every morning at 6 am. She would be up for about an hour. Once I finally would get her back to sleep and crawl back into bed myself, boom, Judah would be up and ready to start his day. Kids and sleep, man. Kids and sleep.