video Updates

Overdue Update

So it has been awhile since I have done an update. Why? Well.... typically I do my updates late at night, once Aiden and mommy have settled down for the night. Sometimes I even do it during the middle of the night feeding.

Well.... for the past couple of nights, I have been able to go to sleep not long after Aiden fell asleep and......... There hasn't been a middle of the night bottle!!!!

Yup, That's right. For two nights running Aiden has slept through his night time bottle. Going 6-7 hours between bottles two nights running. And Daddy is happy to sleep during that time.

So We went to the doctor on Monday and Aiden seems to be doing very well. He is in the 50th percentile (right down the middle) on weight, length and head size. All good news. He handled his shots very well. The doctor looked over his skin and it is starting to clear up very nicely. The itching does seem to be improving somewhat. And we are trying to see if we can switch him to one of the less expensive formulas. What good news! Hopefully we are done with nutramigen and the high cost of formula that brought with us. He seems to be doing okay so far on the gentlease and hopefully that will continue. We're also trying to introduce solids into his diet once again. He has had oatmeal cereal 3 of the last 4 nights and his stomach seems to be handling it pretty well. We're also allowed to start introducing juice to him soon in a sippy cup.

So pretty much all good news on the home front right now as far a sAiden is concerned. We took a couple of videos of him giggling the other day and I will work on getting that converted and up for you to enjoy.

This weekend mimi will be coming down to visit, and even take care of Aiden Saturday night while mommy and daddy go out. So that should be lots of fun for the little guy.... not to mention a welcome break for mommy and daddy.

That's all for now. Look for the video to appear either tonight or tomorrow afternoon!

Jabbering

Just a short update today. It's been kind of tough to take the time to write full blown updates recently. It seems like every time I want to sit down and write a new entry something comes up.

We're going to be keeping the video camera close at hand now as every day seems to bring something new for Aiden. These days he has a daily talking time. He just sits and jabbers away to himself for a good couple of minutes. Of course it is always when the camera is too far away. But we'll work on it.

Yesterday morning I woke up around 9:30 when Aiden started getting a little fussy. Mommy had given him his early morning bottle so I really didn't know what time he was due to eat, so I tried to settle him down and went to get a bottle ready for him. In the meantime he had his eyes closed but was kind of muttering... these big heavy sighs almost like moans. Then he settled down and slept peacefully for awhile. The strange part about it.... he was sleeping on his tummy.

Yeah, the kid who HATES tummy time and has a hard time rolling himself back from his tummy to his back was asleep laying on his tummy. He slept that way for about half an hour. Of course daddy forgot to grab the camera and take a picture. :-(

That's about all the news that is fit to print right now... no teeth yet, although he is using his tongue to "play with his gums" so it prolly isn't too far away.

Photo Update

As Promised... Here are a few photo's from recent days. :-)

The Dermatologist and Six Month

So, It is hard to believe, but Aiden turned 6 months old yesterday. It's been long and short at the same time. Of course it will probably always seem like just yesterday we brought him home from the hospital, so it will always feel like a short time. On the other hand with all of the little problems he has had, and the lack of sleep that has gone along with them it has seemed like a long time as well.

So we went to the Dermatologist yesterday and he essentially agreed with what our doctor had said about Aiden's Eczema. He thought it was a smart move to put him on the derma-smooth and wants us to stay on it for at least 2-3 weeks to expect to see good results. He did recommend a few changes, like getting Aiden wet first before oiling him up, to lock in the moisture. Also, we had not put any additional moisturizer on him during the day between his applications of Derma-smooth. The doctor said when we change a diaper we should apply the moisturizer. So we will be doing that now as well.

A couple of minor changes, but all and all it sounds like we are on the right track. If this path does not clear up his rash in the next couple of weeks we will have to go back and see if we can start the process of finding out exactly what Aiden's trigger is to get him started with the rash.

The changing to Similac has not shown any improvement and in fact Aiden doesn't seem to care for it much, so we will be switching back to the nutramigen.

Took a few pictures today, but will need to load them in tomorrow, so look forward to a little bit of a photo update tomorrow. :-)

Aiden goes to the Doctor

So I took Aiden to the doctor today to get his eczema checked out. As soon as the doctor walked in the door and saw Aiden's rash she basically said we needed to try something new. So we came home with a new oil to put on him called DermaSmooth that is supposed to be like the number one thing to knock out this eczema. So we'll see how that goes. We're also going to be trying changing from Nutramigen to the Similac alternate. Not sure if that will help, but we'll give it a go.

Aiden also managed a new milestone today... sort of. He was sleeping on the couch next to me and when he woke up, he suddenly just sat up. On his own power he went from completely laid down to sitting upright. The reason I say he sort of reached a milestone is because he was kind of down in a crease so that gave him a little extra leverage getting up. Not sure if he could do that on a hard floor just yet.

He's gone a couple of days without solid foods again, he just hasn't seemed to want them. We'll hope that getting the itching under control will let us in turn get his eating habits on the right track and in turn then get him sleeping through the night.

We're going to be taking Aiden to a dermatologist as well. Even though the DermaSmooth is good, it is still a treatment for the symptom, not for the actual problem. So Hopefully the dermatologist can help us figure out what the root cause is and we can eliminate that and move on.

We're on the path now hopefully. Time will tell!

Aiden Eats: The Aftermath

So, Aiden did not show too many ill results of his first solid food in over a month. He ate as well as a 6 month old can be expected to eat. Which is to say that at least as much ended up dribbling down his chin as going into his stomach.

Aiden had a pretty normal night sleep wise. Which means he was a pain to get to go to sleep and when he slept at the beginning of the night it was restlessly. After his 12:30 bottle he did settle in for a bit, but woke up SCREAMING at about 2:30. Nothing his mommy could do would settle him. She went to change his diaper and once she was done with that daddy picked him up off of his changing table. Maybe I picked him up in just the right way, because as soon as I picked him up he let out a huge man sized burp. None of this cute little baby burps, this was a REAL burp. After the shock of the burp wore off he did settle down and finally went back to sleep.

The best news of all is that once he settled down he slept until 7:30. That's right, he went 7 hours without a bottle.

So we tried cereal with him again today and we will see how tonight goes. perhaps we are on track for a healthy baby tummy.

Now if we could just get the itching under control we might get some sleep!

Aiden Eats

So yes, we did give Aiden some solid food today. Oatmeal Cereal mixed up to a watery mix so that his little mouth could work with it. He did okay with the eating part.... now we'll have to see how his stomach feels with the night time part of it. It is 10pm and right now he is pretty content, playing with one of his stuffed toys. We'll see what happens with the rest of the night. We're hoping for him sleeping. But that is kind of what we always hope for.

Raquel decided that he was going to eat while sitting in his high chair. As soon as we put him in it he started laughing. That's a pretty good sign. Of course most of his food wound up trickling down his chin onto his bib, but he got a fair bit of it inside him too.

So now we all try to go to bed, and see what happens with his tummy tonight.

Brief Update

It's been a few rough nights with Aiden, but none as long as the other night when I posted about it. That night we eventually got to sleep at around 4am. He then stayed down until almost 9am, so that wasn't too bad.

We have found that a little bit of infant Tylenol does seem to make a difference, so, though we don't particularly like giving him too much medicine, we have been giving his a little bit each of the last three nights to help him settle down.

Regardless of when he goes to sleep or when I try to get to bed myself, it seems like he always senses when Daddy is trying to go to sleep and chooses that as the optimum time to start getting restless. I know it is merely coincidence or the sudden change in the lighting level in the room or what have you, but it can be a little frustrating.

We have sort of been alternating between bouncer sleeping and co-sleeping, he starts the night in his bouncer, but it seems like mostly he eventually ends up in the bed with us as he gets more and more restless in the bouncer.

We MAY try solid foods again tomorrow just to see how that goes over. It has been close to a month since the last time we tried solids. If you are just joining us, each of the three times we have tried Aiden on Solids he has had one of his roughest nights, acting as though he was in pain and arching his back etc. But he is of an age now where he ought to be starting solids, and we have not seen much in the way of stomach issues here lately, so we are considering giving it a go.

No coincidence we are thinking about trying that on a day where both of us are off the following day, in case things don't go so well.

So report on that upcoming. And I know we are overdue for some pictures, so we will get to those for you soon as well!

rough night

We're in the middle of a pretty rough night. Aiden has been in a bit of a needy period the last few days, where he just wasn't happy unless he is being held. But at night, when he is tired enough, he goes to sleep and all is well. But tongith, he wouldn't sleep. He feel asleep next to me on the couch, but he wouldn't let me put him anywhere where he was not in contact with me. The crying would start almost immediately.

Hopefully this is a very short phase of neediness, but it could mark the start of serious teething and things could go like this for awhile if that is the case. We'll just have to see.

Here is a picture of Sean I thought I would share real quick... Aiden's new cousin. :-)

Aiden has a Cousin!

About 3 weeks early, but still healthy as can be. We want to welcome Aiden's new cousin Sean to the family! Daddy's brother's wife went into labor at approximately 3am Tuesday January 8th and Sean was born at approximately 7:45pm.

Having a cousin 6 months apart in age is going to be pretty cool I suppose. Hopefully they will be able to grow up close enough to see each other on a regular basis and be friends as well as family.

Cosleeping continued

Well…. Co-sleeping seemed to be okay the first night. But the second night, not so much. Aiden didn’t sleep very well, and with him right there up against me, I didn’t sleep very well either. So last night he was back in the bouncer, and that worked out okay.

So I think we will continue to play it by ear, letting him sleep wherever he seems most able to settle down. My research on Co-sleeping found two very opposite opinions on the matter. There are people out there who will adamantly shout that Co-sleeping is horrible and is a direct cause for SIDS, and others who point out that most of the rest of the world encourages Co-sleeping and that deaths are actually considerably lower when a baby co-sleeps with an AWARE parent. (not under the influence of drugs or alcohol).

One site even insisted that the AAP recommendation against Co-Sleeping was solely a campaign by the crib manufacturers to sell more cribs. In the end, I don’t know what the perfect solution is, so we are just going to do what seems to work best for our baby.

I have also been researching his eczema some more, to try to figure out what else we can do to try to stop that in its tracks. I came across a really informative site that talked about the rash and a correlation to Food allergies. It said that in fact, the brighter red and more prominent the rash the more likely it is to be a food allergy. Aiden’s stomach is covered with a bright red rash exactly like what the article spoke about.

I read a lot of people who have had issues with the LIPIL in the Enfamil product, and I am beginning to wonder if that is part of the problem. Enfamil no longer makes any of their products without the LIPIL, so to check this we would have to move to another brand, which we probably will not do without the Doctor’s consent.

Another issue that I have read is the protein levels in the different formulas and how much it is broken down. Apparently normal formula is 100% complete protein, Nutramigen is 21% and the Similac version is 17%. Some parents have said that moving from the 21% to the 17% was enough of a difference to help their child’s eczema disappear. So we will be bringing all of this up to our Doctor. In the meantime we have more creams to put on his little body than we know what to do with. And the itching never seems to get any better.

We’ll find the solution eventually though.

Cosleeping

Well the trip to Indiana is over. We came back yesterday morning and it was a very nice trip. Grandma Mimi took care of the baby both nights and that was a very welcome rest for mommy and me. Thanks Mimi!!!

Aiden is still having obvious discomfort from his skin itching him, we talked to the nurses today and they suggested “deep moisturizer” which is apparently more potent than what we are using now. They don’t want to try anything stronger until he is at least 6 months. Something about that 6 month threshold is magical I guess. Good thing he is only three weeks away.

His skin continues to look worse, with more bumps and rashy red splotches. It is tough to sit there and not be able to do anything while your baby is suffering, but, if the new moisturizer doesn’t help, that is exactly what we are expected to do over the next three weeks.

Fortunately, Aiden only seems in distress when he is very tired. Which means his sleep is unsettled, but when he is up and alert he doesn’t seem to be uncomfortable at all. That’s the good news. He is still a very happy baby.

One of the things that Mimi did to help her get some sleep is hold Aiden in bed with her, between her and the wall. That way if he grumped, she really didn’t have to even wake up, just settle him a little bit. Last night mommy did the same thing. He was grumpy and unsettled, so she held him in bed, and eventually laid him in between us. This way he went from 12:45am – 8am without a bottle and resting pretty okay. So we may be becoming co-sleepers with Aiden until we get the skin problem sorted out. The theory is, get him sleeping through the night in whatever way we are able, and then worry about getting him comfortable sleeping on his own once the scratching is gone. Yes there will be some separation anxiety when we transition him back to his own bed, but how long will that last compared to the amount of sleep we are all losing right now the way things are going.

So daddy’s task over the next day or two is to investigate co-sleeping and the drawbacks. I know once upon a time I read something that linked Co-Sleeping and SIDS, but I think I also read that once a baby is able to turn from their back to their tummy the instances of SIDS decrease dramatically, and Aiden is doing that now. So we’ll see what happens.

Here Comes 2008

Yes, it has been over a week since I blogged. Sorry about that. The Holidays are busy all around,a nd I just never seemed able to take the time to write anything. I probably could have come on and written a sentence or two, but figured one long blog to bring in the New Year would be better than 5 really short blogs.

Although I have not blogged, it has been an eventful week for Aiden. He successfully rolled from back to belly and back again. At one point he actually completed a 540 degree turn, going from back to belly to back to belly. A full turn and a half, moving him a significant way across the floor in the process. His first turn was completely missed by yours truly, my attention distracted by something else as he harmlessly played on one of his playmats. next thing I know, I turn to look at him and he is on his belly. How did that happen?!?!

He is Extremely itchy at night... It doesn't seem like the hydrocortizone creme is doing us a whole lot of good, but the doctor says to keep doing what we are doing for now. Well what we are doing is leading to a very grumpy baby, and that doesn't bode well for our sleep habbits.

We may have an opportunity to test out one theory on his itch over the next couple of nights. We are in Indiana to visit with Aiden's Mimi and Grandpa Danny. They do not have any pets in the house, so if he seems to do better over these two nights, we may have to conclude that either the cats or the dog are causing an allergic reaction. We'll just have to see how it goes and let the doctor know if there seems to be a marked improvement.

We tried solid food again, with just as negative results as last time. We tried oatmeal cereal this time, and the result was still that he would not sleep at all that night with an upset tummy. We have decided to hold off on solids entirely until we go to see the doctor again and get her recommendations.

Aiden had his first Christmas. He slept through the family gift giving on Christmas Eve, but was awake and helped Momma unwrap his presents Christmas morning. Of course he is too young at this point to grasp the concept, but next year should prove interesting. :-)

Last night we welcomed in the first complete year Aiden will spend with us. Aiden was still up at midnight, so he was awake and alert as momma counted down the last ten seconds of 2007 and we ushered in 2008. 30 minutes later, we were all asleep.