Fun stuff updates

I've been so caught up with Noah's excema and fussiness, I haven't gotten around to updating his fun progress. The last week has actually been pretty fruitful for him. 

He has...

1. Discovered his feet. He loves to pull his foot into his mouth. Look at his tongue out with effort! So cute!

2. Rolled over from front-to-back. He can now roll from back-to-front and from front-to-back, though he hasn't done a complete 360-degree roll yet. Interestingly, he seems to be much better at rolling when he doesn't have clothes on. I don't really see a reason for this, but I guess it is his preference.

3. Much improved sitting up. He can now sit up and balance by himself for a few seconds before he falls. We practice this every day. 

Excema

We took Noah to the doctor today. He's had a rash on his face for a while now and he's been so fussy the last few days, so we just wanted to get it checked out. The doctor said it is just excema. We just have to keep it moisturized and put a little hydrocortisone on it if necessary. Noah has been so itchy and miserable lately. I feel so bad for him. This all started with the hives outbreak. Now we've entered a terrible cycle where he itches his face and makes the excema worse, which makes him more itchy, etc. Look at his poor face, and this picture is not even from the worse day.

Brutal

Our darling little boy has not been sleeping well. Every nap, every night, he screams and cries and fights sleep. He doesn't want to be held, he doesn't want to be put in the crib by himself. He won't fall asleep in the stroller, in the car, in a baby carrier. I don't think he wants to be swaddled, but he absolutely can't fall asleep or stay asleep without it, so he has to be. He eventually will fall asleep at night, when he is exhausted because he has barely slept all day. It is generally exhausting. This is the revenge for Noah not having colic and not crying that much previously. Something like this happened once before when he was about 3 months old, and he eventually stopped that, so I hope he will stop this soon....hopefully before Mom and Kristy come, or else we will lose precious baby-sitters.

Giggles - Monster/Wild animal

Video 1: Noah has been awfully giggly lately. Lots of fun. 

Video 2: Noah has also learned to make a new sound when he is protesting things that sounds awful. It sounds like wild animal. I call it his monster-wild animal call. He basically does it whenever we are putting him down for a nap or at night. It's different than crying, and in that way is easier to listen to because his face doesn't look like he is that upset when he is doing it. But it certainly isn't pleasant to listen to, by any means. I hope he forgets about this sound soon.

Emergency room run

We took Noah to the emergency room last night for the first time. It wasn't a terribly traumatic situation, so in some ways it was a good test run.

Noah was having a hard time sleeping last night and was being really fussy. The room was dark, but I decided to turn on a light and look at his face. Poor thing was bright red. The reaction to the formula had gotten worse and his face was all blotchy with a hives-like rash. He was probably super itchy, which is why he couldn't sleep.

We called an after-hours nurse's hotline, and they suggested we take him to the ER, to check to make sure the reaction didn't progress and effect his breathing. I think everyone was erring on the side of caution. 

I kind of felt dumb because by the time we drove to the ER, Noah looked much better. Plus he was in a great mood. All smiles and giggles. He thought it was a great adventure being up that late at night.  His face was still a little red, but much better than when we had left the house. The ER nurses probably thought we were over-protective freak parents, which is still partially true, but in our defense I wasn't planning on going to the ER until the phone nurse told us to. Anyway, I know people have problems with Kaiser, but so far I've been so happy with our experiences there. We waited in the waiting room for about 20 minutes, then got in to see a doctor who told us that we could give him a little children's Benadryl if Noah was really bothered, but that otherwise he seemed fine, and we were sent on our way.

Noah fell asleep in the car ride home and proceed to sleep for the next 5 hours in his crib, without any Benadryl, so I guess he wasn't that bothered after all. After dropping us off at home, poor Grant drove all around trying to find an all night pharmacy to buy some Benadryl, just in case, though we didn't end up needing it.

This morning, we all slept in, but Noah looked much better. A little rash was still around, but overall much better. Now I can add food allergy paranoia to my growing list of parental concerns. Great.

Introducing formula

Today Noah had his first try with formula. We thought we'd slowly ease him into it, so Grant mixed in 1 ounce of formula with the breast milk I pumped for him over the course of an entire day. 

So far, not going so well. Noah ate it and didn't seem to have a problem with the taste. However, it appears that he has a bit of a rash on his face and chest, which I'm guessing is an allergic reaction, probably to the cow's milk? Also he's been pretty fussy all day, according to Grant. And he's having trouble going to sleep. Again, fussy. I'm wondering if he has a tummy ache. 

Now we have a giant can of powdered formula that I'm afraid to keep using. I wonder if there is anyone we can give it to so it doesn't go to waste. We're going to have to try and get smaller sizes next time. 

I was really hoping that Noah wouldn't be a kid with allergic reactions to cow's milk. Darn. Formula is officially on hold again.

Little man

I always call Noah "Big Boy" (or Big Boi if you like Outkast) because he is one. I've noticed that our pediatrician and daycare person use the alternative term "Little Man." I've decided that Little Man is exceedingly cuter and think that I will start using that instead.