Five months old! Time is just absolutely racing by – I can’t believe Gabe is five months old already. I thought it went quickly when Toby was a baby but with Gabe it’s absolutely bonkers! I’ve just been having a read of Toby’s five month update and I know I shouldn’t compare them but it’s surprising how similar my boys are at this age.

I haven’t had Gabe weighed since he had he last set of immunisations at 19 weeks but he was 15lb 4oz then. That puts him between the 25th and 50th centiles which is pretty much where Toby was too after they were both born between the 9th and 25th. Gabe is definitely long like his brother too – he’s currently 69 cm and is wearing nearly all 6-9 month clothes already.

After a four month sleep regression Toby was back to mostly sleeping through the night at five months – I don’t know what happened though because he doesn’t sleep through any more! With Gabe his sleep hasn’t really changed much. Most nights he sleeps from about 6:30 pm until between 4 and 5 am. Sometimes he wakes up early but I can usually get him back to sleep with a little help from Ewan the Dream Sheep and a rub on the back. I’m usually up for about an hour with him early morning and he’ll have a bottle and a clean nappy then it’s back to bed, if I’m lucky for another hour or two but sometimes only half an hour or so until he’s back awake again. Having said that the last two nights he’s woken up again within an hour of going to bed, and then again in the early hours of the morning. I don’t know if he’s having a growth spurt or a leap or what but I hope whatever it is passes soon.

Gabe is still sleeping in our room in his Chicco Next 2 Me co-sleeper crib whereas Toby was sleeping in the big cot in his room from being 6 weeks old. I don’t know if this makes any difference to Gabe’s sleep. Perhaps he is disturbed by us sometimes but it also means I can resettle him if he stirs. With Toby he would have more chance to get worked up to a full on cry before we heard him on the monitor and it would usually need a bottle to get him back to sleep. I think Toby was napping better than Gabe at this age too but that is really just a result of the circumstances we now find ourselves in. With Toby I could stay at home and but him to bed when he looked like he needed to sleep but now Gabe has to fit in around nursery runs and other errands. We do usually manage to get him to have a nap at home in the morning and for the last couple of weeks he has slept for a couple of hours most mornings. I’m really lucky that Toby is so well behaved and doesn’t get up to much mischief so I can leave him downstairs whilst I put Gabe to bed. Afternoon naps for Gabe usually happen either in the car or buggy, or sometimes on my lap at home whilst I watch TV.

Gabe rolled from his front to his back a couple of weeks ago but just like his brother he did it about three times then hasn’t bothered since! He certainly wriggles around plenty when he’s lying down so I’m sure it won’t be long before he’s rolling all over the place. He’s not sitting up yet but he’s fairly stable and just needs a little bit of support. I can’t believe we’ll be starting weaning soon, although I’m not in any huge rush! I think weaning will be different this time round as Gabe already tries to eat everything he gets his hands on where Toby never really put anything in his mouth and it was a good month or two before he really started feeding himself.

Gabe’s personality is starting to come out more now. He’s pretty chilled out these days and will quite happily sit in his bouncer or lie on the play mat for quite a long time while I get on with looking after Toby and getting stuff done. He’s absolutely fascinated with his big brother and saves most of his smiles and giggles for him. Toby for his part is becoming much more interested in Gabe now he’s realised he can get him to react, and he also helps by putting his dummy in for him or pulling his bib down off his face when he’s managed to flip it up for the fiftieth time that day! He still tries to get him to stop crying by saying ‘stop Gabe’ which isn’t always that effective! I can’t wait to see their relationship develop though and I’m sure it won’t be too long before we see them playing together and getting up to mischief!

I think that’s probably about it for this month. Another month and my little baby Gabe will be half a year old!