Skin problems April 14, 2008

I had to take Hayden to the doctor last week because he got another bad rash on his face, neck, and torso.  I think it’s to do with his sunscreen because he had some painful blotches in Florida after a couple of days wearing sunscreen, then he had the same thing before I took him to the doctor and daycare had put sunscreen on him 2 days in a row so he could go outside for a while.  The doctor wants him to see a pediatric dermatologist, so we have that appointment next week.  In the meantime, he put us back on the prescription cream for his trouble areas, hydrocortisone ointment on his face and neck (where he is not supposed to have the prescription cream applied), and he advised us not to give him eggs, nuts, or fish/shellfish until he is 2 years old since he seems to be sensitive to allergens.  Also, he wanted us to switch to a hypoallergenic formula as that can sometimes help.  Hayden looks completely better now, and surprisingly he took the formula without fuss.  It smells different from his regular formula, and the doctor said that he might not want to take it because of its taste.  But he was fantastic with it, which surprised us because he is never a hugely eager bottle drinker in general.  But I think I might start giving it to him 80% of the time and give him his regular organic formula the rest of the time, because I don’t like that the hypoallergenic stuff isn’t organic (it’s miles from organic!) and it’s super expensive as well.  Plus, I have stocked up on his old stuff because it went on sale.  Luckily that stuff keeps well, but he is only on formula for another 3 1/2 months so there isn’t all that much more time for him to use it.

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Sitting up January 6, 2008

Hayden started sitting up on his own a couple of days ago!  He can sit for a few seconds before he slowly starts to fall over. 🙂  He also holds his bottles!  He is given a little bit of water after his solid food, and he just grabs the bottle and holds it himself.  Apparently when other people give him milk in a bottle he does it then, too.

We are deep into sleep training.  He is doing really well at night.  We’ve had to let him cry it out a little over night when we know he can’t be hungry, and (touch wood) he seems to be catching on.  Naps are taking a bit more work at this point, but that is natural (according to my book).  We are implementing ‘cry it out’ during nap time too, and he is somewhat coming along but he seems awfully stubborn at times!  I think it is slowly coming together, but it will just take some time.  And if ever it does come together, he’ll go off to day care for three days in a row and everything might come undone! 😉  Right, I guess that means I need to give up work!!! 😛 (It’s worth a try, hey?!)

Hayden had to go to the doctor on Thurs because his skin was struggling a bit.  We found out he has eczema at his last well child visit last month, and the doctor gave us some things to try to heal it up.  It has been up and down since that visit, and on Wednesday he developed a rash all along his back so we decided it was time to be seen again.  He has a medium case of eczema, with rashes on all of the creases of his skin (legs, arms, armpits, neck).  He’s on an antibiotic and a medium steroid cream.  It is looking a lot better already.  They weighed him with his clothes on and he was 19 lbs 8 oz!!!!  I suppose that would equate to somewhere around 19 lbs without clothes.  There’s no stopping his growth!

I’m really excited because we signed up today for Aquababes, which is a parent/baby swimming class.  I have been on the waiting list for only a couple of days, but I didn’t think we would be able to be in the class until March.  They said he has to be 6 months, and he isn’t 6 months until Feb 3.  The class starts in two weeks.  They must not be that strict about the age, because they took his birthdate so they know he is a couple of weeks shy of 6 mos.  John and I decided if we could just get him signed up somehow they would never question him being old enough once they saw him.  He certainly looks older than 6 mos!  So anyway, I ordered him a swimsuit online today.  There aren’t any in the shops at the moment.  Next I need to find some swimming diapers.  Hopefully there will be some at Target even though it’s out of season.  Otherwise, I might need to implement the help of my Floridian friends!  It’s always swimming season in Florida!

Still the biggest baby December 15, 2007

Hayden went to the doctor for his 4 month check up on Dec 6.  He was 17 lbs 5 oz, 26 3/4 inches.  He’s still the 90th percentile in weight, height, and head circumference.  He had had a rash on the back of his knees which was diagnosed as eczema, so he got some creams for that and it healed up really quickly.

He’s not where we thought he would be now with night sleeping.  He’s good with his routine and goes down fairly easily, but I have to get up at least once in the middle of the night still and in fact it’s more normal to have to get up twice.  My theory is he is so big that he just requires more food and therefore more feedings.  We had hoped though that at 4 1/2 months he would at least be sleeping through from the 11 pm feeding to about 6 am or so.  I imagine we will start feeding him cereal soon to try to fill him up a bit before bed.  I had planned to start on Thursday and told John to plan to get home early so we could give him cereal for the first time before his bath, but then Wednesday night he had a rare night with only one waking so we postponed the cereal.  I would like to wait until as close to 6 months as we can before we start cereal, but he’s going to have to start having more good nights than bad nights really soon in order to make it much longer on breastmilk alone!

John and I went to a concert on Tuesday night with my stepmom Gretchen while Grandpaman watched Hayden.  We went to see the Kooks, who are a British band who were playing at the Vogue in Broadripple.  We were so tired from Hayden giving us many consecutive sleepless nights and I think all three of us would have been tempted not to go if we hadn’t gotten the tickets in advance.  But it was a really great show so I was glad we dragged ourselves there in the end.  It was a charity show and they had a silent auction for the charity with three signed guitars – a toy one signed by Ryan Adams and the Cardinals, an electric IU (my university) guitar signed by the Kooks, and a regular guitar signed by the Goo Goo Dolls.  John went to the auction right before it closed and won the Ryan Adams guitar!  It was great from both angles – we were glad to support the charity (Rock to Read) and really happy to get the guitar signed by one of our favorite artists!

What else have we been up to?  I know it’s been a while since either of us has blogged.  We have been really busy getting ready for Christmas.  I was hoping to have some time to nap on Thurs and Fri (since I have the days off) to catch up on the lost sleep that has accumulated, but I didn’t have time to even think about sitting down in the end.  I seem to be spending all my time baking or shopping.  Our friend Sunil had a chili cookoff a couple of weekends ago which was quite fun.  Everyone brought a chili and we voted on our favorites.  Neither John nor I won (fix!!) but it was quite fun.  We suspended Hayden’s bedtime routine so he could join us.  It seems whenever we show up somewhere without him the first thing everyone says is ‘Where’s Hayden? We don’t want to see you!  We want to see the baby!’

It’s snowing quite heavily today.  We’re in the midst of a winter storm apparently.  It’s supposed to snow all weekend to reach 8 to 12 inches!  It’s my dad’s birthday today, so we are supposed to go out to dinner tonight.  We’ll have to see what happens with the weather to see if it’s safe enough to rough the roads.

Lucy had a vet appointment this week for her yearly boosters.  We took her back to the vet who had kept her litter while they were trying to be adopted.  Everyone in there was going so crazy for her, and she was so excited to be back.  She hasn’t been there in months and months, and yet she clearly remembered the place and was so excited to be there and see everyone.  Laura, the woman who kept the puppies at her house, said she looks just like her mom.  We had never seen Lucy’s mom.  She also kept going on about how good Lucy was and how she was very chilled out.  I think Lucy was on her very, very best behavior because I can’t think of the last time she was described as a good dog!  Certainly not in our house anyway.  She keeps escaping under Macy’s fence and ending up in various yards around the neighborhood.  She is the BIGGEST knucklehead.

I think that’s pretty much it.  We are excited for John’s sister Michelle to get here.  She’ll be here for a week over Christmas.  She’s not seen Hayden yet, so we’re really excited for that introduction!