So, what's Ryan up to...he loves his playmat. He can now grab all the toys and he's moving all around on it. He rolls up on his side often, and he tries to roll over but so far he can't. He is good at turning around though. I'll put him down on his back with his head pointing one way, and ten minutes later he's turned 180 degrees with his head pointed the opposite way. Yet somehow, I've never seen it happen. It's magic.
He also grabs his binky out of his mouth and bats at the toys to trigger the music in his bouncy seat. He doesn't have to use a head positioner anymore, not in his car seat or the bouncy seat. We can actually easily buckle his car seat now that he's grown and we've lengthened the straps.
He's such a happy and content baby. That hasn't changed. He doesn't cry unless he's super hungry and you haven't fed him fast enough, or when he has a messy diaper. While there are exceptions, they don't occur very often. He just likes to be held, watch people and things, and play. I love it when he coos, especially when it's in reply to something I say or do to him.
Ryan had his check-up this past Friday. He's still a peanut - 12lbs 8oz, 10 - 25%; 23 1/4 inches, 3 - 10%; head - 16 1/2 inches, 3-10%. His eczema has gottten much better. I love the Cerave cream. His cradle cap is almost gone. His acne is completely gone, too.
While he might be a peanut, he doesn't eat like one. He's eating 28 - 32 oz per 24 hours. He eats pretty regularly which is amazing to me. (It's nothing like it was with the girls. I love it!) He's like clockwork: 8-8:30 am, 12-12:30pm, 4-4:30pm, 8-8:30pm. He's still in the bouncy seat in the crib, but sleeps from 9:30pm to 8 or 8:30am. Again, amazing. Although not so much on the naps. Those are hit or miss. But with sleeping like that at night I can live with the non-napping.
He's facing forward in the carrier now. Which means I need to figure out a new way to wrap the Moby. But he likes the Baby Bjorn, even if it does get a bit slobbery at times.
(1/19/11)
He's starting to wear 3-6 month clothes, although they're long on him. He can wear some 0-3 month sleepers, bust most have gotten too short. He's in size 1 diapers but I put a size 2 on him at night since he sleeps for so long.
We have one issue we're dealing with right now. And I must warn you, this is about to get wordy and likely confusing. I keep editing it trying to make it more coherent, but it's not helping so I'm just leaving it.
Ryan cannot yet hold himself up when on his tummy. Like most babies, he does not care for tummy time but instead of pushing himself up, he just gives up and lays there crying. Or, sometimes, just turns his head to the side and goes to sleep. Over the last few weeks I'd been thinking about it a lot, as it's usually something that babies can do easily by four-months-old. He was also still a bit wobbly when held and when sitting. We'd tried the Bumbo but weren't using it because he would end up leaning to the side and didn't really like it. We hadn't gotten out the exersaucer for that very reason.
I was discussing all this with Ryan's doctor - not pushing himself up, that I'd noticed his left eye was bigger than the right, the head tilt, the wobbly head, how I wasn't ready to start cereal yet because of this.
Ryan's a bit delayed with his gross motor skills and trunk strength. For example: If you hold a baby in front of you, their back to your chest, and tilt them at a 45 degree angle they should lift their head up to look forward. Ryan just looked down. Poor little guy. The doctor recommended the exersaucer because while I wasn't using it since I didn't feel he could do it yet, that's the very reason I should put him in it. It will force him to strengthen his core/trunk. He'll have to work at staying upright. First time I put him in it, he just slumped forward with his head on the seat. It's was so sad...yet kind of funny, I'll be honest. But, he got better quickly and now seems to like it. Same as the Bumbo. The more we put him in it, the better he's getting. Seems me avoiding the things he couldn't do was doing more harm than good. Of course, I didn't know that at the time when I was avoiding them.
While we're making progress with the wobbly head/staying upright, not so much with the tummy time. He still cries and still just gives up and turns to the side. But with time, practice and the strengthening coming form the Bumbo and exersaucer, it will get easier and better. Which brings me to the head tilt.
We'd actually discussed this with the doctor previously, at his 1 and 2 month checkup. Ryan's head is always tilted to the right. He showed me how to stretch our his neck and I thought the issue had gone away. We weren't noticing it anoymore. But I think we had just gotten used to it. When I mentioned how one eye was bigger than the other, I expected our pediatrician to tell me it was normal and the small eye would catch up with the bigger one. Nope. Turns out the head tilt (that we knew about) had led to the flat spot on the right side of his head (which we also knew about but I thought had gotten better) and that had caused his forehead to push forward and make his right eye smaller (that we certainly did not know about). I hadn't noticed it until he pointed it out to me, but the right side of his forehead is actually bigger than the left. Thankfully, this is fixable.
When we'd been discussing the flat spot back at his two-month appt, he wasn't concerned because we'd be starting tummy time, and with less time on his side/back the flat spot would correct itself. Except there's not a lot of tummy time therefore no correcting.
I'm now to stretch out his neck 3x a day for 30 seconds at a time. I'm not sure if you know this, but when fighting your four-month-old to stretch his neck which he most certainly does not like, 30 seconds is a really long time. And it's hard. Hard because he fights it. Hard because it hurts him. Hard because he cries and looks at me like, "Why are you doing this to me?" But I have to. Because if I don't, and we can't fix this, the next step is physical therapy. And while it would easier to let a stranger do this, I don't want this to go on any longer than necessary.
So our goals are: to get his neck muscle straightened out and strengthen his trunk so he can sit up with out wobbling. Those in turn should alleviate the the flat side of his head, let his right eye grow and catch up with his left, and hopefully he'll soon start holding himself up during tummy time. As Michael said, no one goes to Kindergarten without holding themselves up when on their stomach.
I was googling tonight, and found this Congenital Muscular Torticollis. Now, my pediatrician did not give me this diagnosis for Ryan, but this certainly seems this could be what Ryan has. I'll ask him about it at his six-month check up.
I know that was confusing and I was rambling, so if you've stuck with me and made it through, thanks. I know that this isn't a life-threatening condition, it's fixable. It could certainly be worse. And it's not as if he's months and months behind where he should be, it's slight delay. He's not nine-months-old and unable to push himself up. It's a physical issue (something I asked) and there's nothing wrong with his brain developmentally-wise. His fine-motor skills are good; he can grab toys and necklaces and hair. He smiles and laughs and coos and loves to watch people. It's a minor thing. Just a bit worrisome and makes this mama concerned.
Now enough about that.
There's something very cute about lions on baby butts.
Even cuter? This.
(1/17/11)
Mackenzie's already started dressing him up in tutus. He's got the "are you seriously doing this to me?" look down pat.
(1/14/11)
And I love his eyes here. I'm not sure what was so shocking, I was just changing his diaper at the basketball game.
(1/14/11)I don't care what anyone says, but dressing baby boys is just as fun as baby girls. He was looking mighty cute for church.
(1/9/11)Looking very cute in the "r" shirt and matching hat from Missy. I love it, Mis!
(1/8/11)And with that, he's four months and a week and a half old and growing way too fast.
