Can you believe it, I’m actually getting this done on the actual day! Today is Christmas Eve as well as Harper’s 5 month b-day, so all the Christmas festivities are under way.

I can’t believe how much she has changed just in the last month.  She is starting to get a little personality and becoming such a happy and smiley baby. Anytime her brothers walk in the room or start talking to her, she automatically starts smiling…such a wonderful sight to see!  Hayden has given her a new nickname, I just realized the other day what he was calling her…he calls her “Happy”, and now he has Ian calling her that. So as she gets older, her nickname lists gets longer – Harper Beth, Harps and now Happy.

Harper is such a talker, she’ll sing and talk non stop in the car….which is much better than her usual crying if you aren’t holding her hand. The girl craves touch more than anyone I know.  She is most happy when you are holding her hand.

She got her Doc Band a few weeks ago and has done ok with it.  She didn’t like sleeping with it much at first, but she’s getting better with it.  It tends to rub on her forehead and it gets red so we take it off more than we are supposed to, oops She is supposed to wear it 23 hours a day, she usually does 22 -23 depending on how red her forehead gets. She estimated to wear it about 6-8 weeks, but I’m hoping for more like 4-6 weeks. The band itself is just a plain white plastic shell, so I got some scrapbook stickers and decorated it. I put modge podge over the stickers to seal it, but it just peeled off a few days later.  Now I just have to replace the letters of her name about once a week because they rub off.

We got the ok from her pediatrician to start rice cereal and if she does ok with that, baby food.  Well, she was not a fan of the cereal so we’ll try it again soon, I’m in no hurry because of her tummy problems.

Her reflux and tummy is doing much better these days, with the two medications and formula she’s doing good…it can only get better from here because reflux tends to hit its peak in babies at 4 months.  Fingers crossed!

She celebrated her first Thanksgiving this last month and we thought we were going to have to spend it secluded in a room by ourselves.  Harper does not do well in places she’s not familiar with and lots of people around, especially when she is tired. It was just too much for her to take in in one day.  We finally got her to sleep for a little bit and she got used to everyone and did ok for a little while, then it was time to leave.  I’m hoping Christmas will be better since she’s a month older.

Thanksgiving 2013

Harper loves to stand up and is such a busy body and has to keep her hands moving that she doesn’t like to sit in a bouncy or lay on the playmat, etc.  So I got her a stationary play station where she can stand up to her hearts content.  She LOVES it! She will easily play in it for up to an hour.

She rolled over from her tummy to her back for the first time about a week ago but hasn’t done it much since.  She is sleeping a lot better at night and during the day for naps.  She  usually goes to sleep around 630pm and sleeps till 830 or 900 when we wake her up to eat and then straight back to sleep till about 400-500 am – she’ll eat then goes back to sleep.  There have been several nights where she sleeps until 700am without waking to eat – yeah for us! She is taking 3 naps a day anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour each.  luckily for us, she is getting better at sleeping through her LOUD brothers! they still wake her up, but she’s doing better with it.

She still eats 4-5 ounces 4 or five times a day and is filling out nicely – as you can see by her chubby cheeks! ;)  We won’t know her stats until next month when we go back to the doctor.

My little girl is growing up so fast, before we know it she’ll be a year! This is such a fun age and I love watching her learn and do new things.