First Signs of Movement

Sean is definitely mobile, but not crawling yet. I want this blog to sort of be a timestamp to see how long between now and when he starts crawling.

• He rolls around a lot,
• He scoots backwards on his tummy pretty good
• In the last two days he has
• sat up on his own from a laying down position
• was able to get up on his knees and hands a the same time - though he still hangs his head low

Sleep?

Sean was a pretty good sleeper during his 3rd month...about 7-8 solid hours. he's been sleeping in a miracle blanket swaddle since we was about 3 months. he hit a normal 4 month sleep regression, but unfortunately at nearly 6 months old hasn't gone back. he's up 2-3 times a night and still needs a bottle to fall asleep. We tried transitioning out of the swaddle and that has gone horrible. he wakes up every couple hours again. Even if he isn't waking us up that often, i can tell he's not sleeping well b/c he is more tired during the day. We have been swaddling again the past few nights and while feeding him tonight, I looked into how we can transition him from the swaddle. Before today, the way that seem to be thought was the best was to swaddle him with one arm out. Well, the first night we did that he used that one arm to paddle himself around 90 degrees. then we though let's just try no swaddle. well, he fell a sleep faster but did one of these three things:

• roll on his stomach, turn 90 degrees, and dangle his legs through the crib
• roll on his stomach and practice his crying push ups
• do the backwards worm from one end of the crib to another

so, like i said...tonight I was looking for another solution and a new thing popped up in my search..the zippadeezip. Normally, I would pass this off as another gimmikee baby product...but when we needed sean to sleep when he was younger, I gave in a bought the $40 miracle blanket and it worked - the woman who makes these things personally recommends the miracle blanket and designed her sleep sac as a transition from that. so, since dan is out tonight..i might do some online shopping ;)

The Eczema Saga

Sean probably has had his eczema for about 3 months now. We have since be able to control it, but it isn't going away. I have learned as much as I think I can about the issue and got as much advice as I can handle (sample below), but I'm really starting to think it's due to a milk protein allergy. That would explain his eczema and the constant runny/stuffy nose he seems to have had since birth and had never really gone away. So, just yesterday, we switched him to a, more expensive, soy based formula. I'm of course hoping that it works, however, I have read that up to 50% of kids with the milk protein allergy, also have the a soy allergy. This condition is hereditary..and all of dan's nieces have the issue and eventually had to switch to the Elecare formula.

Update:
Um...after some research, I'm really confused. I'm not sure what I'm feeding him :( I guess it's not soy based... and I'm confused if its non soy and non dairy..or if it's just a broken down milk protein. It shouldn't be this difficult to figure out.

• Perry Peterson Food allergy?

  March 28 at 10:59am · Like
• 

  Tina Whiting Awe poor little guy I feel so bad for him!

  March 28 at 11:15am · Like
• 

  Nena Garcia We had to switch to non scented soaps and lotion. aveeno (or the generic equivalent) is what we switched to. Theres a few more brands that were suggested let me know if you want those too. Also we had to stay with the baby laundry soap (not dreft)or the free and clear ones. She still breaks out a little bit once in a while but it has definitely gotten better.

  March 28 at 11:20am · Like · 1
• 

  Holly Povish Aww poor little guy! Mittens and cream to hopefully help?

  March 28 at 11:25am · Like
• 

  Amber Patterson I recommend Vanicream, it's the only lotion I can use and is safe for children. My mom had to keep my nails really short and I slept with mittens. The daycare has to be careful of cleaning products they use too.

  March 28 at 11:47am · Like
• 

  Sandy Semrow Giese I was just reading that coconut oil is supposed to be very helpful for this?

• The ONLY thing that ever worked for my son's eczema was Gentle Naturals Eczema cream. It has become more difficult to find, but WELL worth it. Cleared it up within two weeks of the first treatment.

  March 28 at 2:37pm · Like
• 

  Marie Crotty Aww poor little guy!

  March 28 at 3:30pm · Like
• 

  Michelle Schultz Adalynn gets really red patches on her cheeks that look like wind burn but its just super dry areas. I use eucerin aquaphor healing ointment on the areas and it helps a lot. I also only give her a bath ever 3-4 days with aveeno baby wash. I hope that might help 

  March 28 at 3:57pm · Like

4th Trimester

So, this past weekend I participated in this: http://4thtrimesterbodies.com/stephanie-stach/

I have mixed feelings about this. I'm not a person who is comfortable with their body and I wasn't comfortable sharing my entire story with everyone - so i'm not sure i'm really a good candidate to participate. I had the option to pick the photo that would be used, but I didn't like myself in any of them, so I just had the photographer pick the one she liked best. In addition, the shoot went nothing like I had planned. Sean was in a bad mood and wasn't his normal happy self, so there were no smiles from either of us. I was going to share more of my story too, but as I was talking I could feel myself ready to cry so I held back. I'm debating contacting the project and submitting the rest of my story so they can use it in book. A friend of mine who inspired me to do, didn't end up actually going through. However, after she saw my photo, she said I had inspired her and she contacted the project to participate. I was sent home with two bonus shots, below:

Bragging

I obviously think highly of Sean, but I guess so do the ladies at daycare!
A bunch of them seem to think he's the happiest baby around, hardly ever cries, always happy, will sleep through just about anything, and is even happy when other babies are upset.
Almost from day one they said he took to daycare a lot better than most.
Just last week one of his teacher's told me he's the youngest in his room and is more physically advanced then some of the other babies.

Go Sean! Momma so proud :)

Starting to move

He's starting to roll over more consistently now..mostly from back to tummy but he will also do tummy to back, just not as much right now. We are also starting to need to strap him into his chair now b/c he's squirming out.  When he's on his back he moves around the floor pretty good by doing a sort of dolphin move.

He's definitely not crawling yet, but he's sort of getting close. he has the legs and but down, but he doesn't seem to have the arm strength yet.

Skin History Update

He finally saw this doc yesterday. I guess the rash he has all over his body is actually eczema too. So, we have to start him on steroid cream :(. Two types, one for his body and a lower strength one for his face. And we have to use Aquaphore on top of that. 2-3 times a day. So basically we are the farthest away from natural remedies that I can think of. But I can't seem to find any natural remedies that work for his case. The exceptionally cold winter we are having is making things more difficult to manage. Also, unfortunately doc thinks it could take up to 2 months to clear up.