Almost 6 months!!!

I'm getting bigger and cuter every day. :) :)

love,

the cuteness

My two little trouble-makers!

This is a common occurrence around my house these days. I think Ilsa knows that Ryden is a little sturdier now, and just can't resist playing with him. Sorry the last two videos are so dark.









love,
us

FINALLY........

Ryden is 5 1/2 months old and he has finally figured out how to roll from his belly to his back. It took a lot of enticing as you can see. Hopefully, he's not a one hit wonder!

Mr. Sleeper

In the past several weeks, there have been quite a few changes around here. Momma is back to work, Ryden has a new fantastic caregiver/nanny, Ryden falls asleep all by himself in his crib any and every time (with smiles and cooing, usually!), I have stooped consuming dairy (for his sake- hopefully) and soon, Ryden will be starting solids- AGAIN.

Well, first... I started back at work two weeks ago. I am only working on tuesdays, fridays and saturdays. Honestly, I can't believe how happy I am to be back and how seamless the change was for Ryden. My friend (originally client from quite a few years ago) Gabriella is watching Ryden during the week. I can't even tell you how great she is and Ryden seems to be quite pleased with her. He got excited to see her when she came over last week. I have to say, her first day wasn't so easy. Ryden only slept 30 minutes for her that entire day, and I think they were BOTH miserable. With some hard work and some tears, (both mine and Ryden's) over the next couple of days, things have gotten better. I also think Ilsa is just pleased to have someone else around the house. Not to mention, this is important for Ryden. Considering that I was pretty much the only face he has been seeing for the last 5 months, he was due some new interactions.
Work, itself, is just great! It's nice being around adults again; and I am really enjoying doing hair. I have missed my co-workers and all of my clients. Not to mention, even though I have been gone for 6 months, I truly feel my skills are just as sharp as ever if not better. The only glitch that is taking some getting use to is... pumping at work. I think I finally got it down, but milk supply is such a "delicate ecosystem" (I like to call it) that I can damage my supply by missing just one pumping session. This has taught me to be more diligent about it and to not get lazy at all.
On saturdays, Eric watches Ryden. It has been two saturdays now and I think they have accomplished a finely tuned system. I know Eric has found out how tiresome it is watching a baby full time, all day long, but I think he has handled it without a hitch. This is special time for them, and once Ryden is older, I think it will show with how much he really appreciates his "daddy" time. :) :)

After Ryden's first day with his sitter, I knew I had to do some things to help his naps go better. Up until that point, Ryden had never fallen asleep on his own, other than a few times for bed, in the car or in the stroller. We had always helped him down by rocking him and walking him around. On wednesday, two weeks ago, I *helped* Ryden fall asleep in his crib, for the first time, on his own. It was a long 45 minutes or so of me singing to him, shhshhing him gently, rubbing his belly, playing music and white noise and both of us crying (on and off) until he fell asleep. Afterwards, I wasn't sure how to feel about it and I'm still not, but I now see that it has helped him tremendously. The second nap of that day, he fell asleep within about 10 minutes with some fussing. That afternoon, his third nap, went about the same as the first one of the day. Not good, but thankfully, the last time it would ever happen that way. Now, whenever you put him down, he pretty much coos and talks to his stuffed piggy anywhere from 1 minute to 10 minutes before he falls asleep. Sometimes, he starts a little protest cry, for a minute, but I just stay in the room and quietly shhshh him. Within a minute, he stops, grabs his little blanky and starts cooing himself to sleep. Last week, I didn't even stay in the room with him after I put him down, because he didn't need anymore help. He does it all on his own. I never once left him to cry, I always stayed with him and just comforted him in a new way. Now, he doesn't even need me. My arms and back are very pleased with this. My next goal is to get him to sleep past 40 minutes for naps. Not sure what to do for that one, though. To each their own, but this worked for us. No more transferring of a "land mine" from our arms to the crib!! :)

Lastly, I took Ryden to the doctor, last week, because he had a rash and found out that it is a mild case of eczema (what I thought). The doctor thinks that it is an internal allergen since it is mainly on his torso, tops of his thighs and back. So, I cut dairy out of my diet, to see if that is the cause, since it is one of the biggest offenders. I know it is pretty much inherited and that it is also offset by temperature, but I know a lot of people have had really good reactions to dietary changes. It's worth a shot. The week prior to that, we had started giving him solids. The few foods that we had given him were all about three days apart from each other (except for the watermelon and nectarine but that was several weeks ago) consisting of sweet potato and banana. At first, I thought it was maybe one of the new foods. I wasn't sure, so, I stopped giving him ANY food. I've now come to the conclusion it's definitely not that. Plus, I had noticed a little spot on his leg over a month ago. So, it could have been the weather or even having the other foods that kicked it in, but it was already there. Also, I haven't changed detergents or soaps or anything.
The doc told me that I could use cortisone or eucerin if he was really uncomfortable. He said that if it is really bothering him I should be able to tell, because he is old enough to be scratching it. For now, I am putting Calendula cream on him and olive oil in his bath. I have used the cortisone on him twice, because either he was itchy a few times or has found his penis for the first time... HAH! Not sure which. The past couple of days, it has been looking a little better. I have been off of dairy for almost a week now, but he did have some thawed out breast-milk, from when I was eating dairy, a few times last week. It should also take a couple of weeks before the dairy is fully out of my system. We'll see *crosses fingers* how it all goes.

I think we might start solids again this week. I know he wants to eat SO BAD; so, we'll play it by ear.

I just want to add... Ryden slept two and a half hours for his first nap this morning. WOO HOO!!

hope all is well with everyone,

The Sanfords