Jackson update.

Jackson turns 6 months in 2 weeks.  And he is changing daily, turning into such a big boy.

Jackson's eczema has been up and down, but at the moment is not looking good at all.  A few weeks back I saw a naturopath, who had some good recommendations, and since then I have started on a completely dairy-free diet, and a (mostly) wheat-free diet.  I say mostly wheat/gluten free as I still have the occasional wheat snack.  I thought things were improving and I was pretty excited we may have found a solution, but then BAM it got worse again.  Now, I've read that anything that triggers an immune response can cause an eczema flare-up, so the fact that Jackson is pretty sick could be what is causing his eczema to be pretty bad at the moment.  Immunizations can also cause flare-ups and he just had his 5 month shots last week.

The above pictures were taken a few days ago, and since then his cheeks have turned bright red, his skin is dry and red and itchy, and he is CONSTANTLY trying to scratch his face and head.  The combination of his cold and his eczema has led to some terrible sleep and a very sad and overtired baby during the day.  As a result, he does not want to be put down.  He's pretty much only happy if he's being held, or sitting in his bouncer.  I actually don't like putting him in there for very long, but at the moment it's the only way I can put him down for more than 2 seconds!  Although he thought bubbles were pretty fascinating... that bought me about 10 minutes while I gave Riley a bath.

Now back to sleeping-  for a few weeks he was up CONSTANTLY.  I was lucky to get 30 minutes out of him.  We have since started swaddling him again and putting him in his rock 'n play rather than his crib, figuring keeping him slightly elevated will help with his cough, and keeping him swaddled will keep him from scratching.  Now we're back to some fairly decent stretches, although it's pretty hit or miss.  He's usually asleep for the night at 5:30 or 6, and is up for a feed around 10 or 11.  He rarely sleeps that whole time, usually requires some rocking back to sleep in there somewhere.  Then sometimes he's up for HOURS in the middle of the night.  I'm hoping that after he comes right from this cold that he'll settle into some better sleep patterns, but that might just be wishful thinking.

Other things- since he's been sick and not wanting to be put down, he's decided that he hates tummy time, and has made no progress on trying to sit up, but he can stand with us just holding his fingers.  He prefers to be sitting upright or standing and trying to jump constantly.  The boy goes NUTS in the bouncer, he's as happy as can be in there!  In fact, one day we decided to take advantage of a decent winter day and play in the backyard, so we brought his bouncer out and he was as happy as can be.

As we get closer and closer to the big 6 months, we get closer to starting solids.  I was pretty adamant about not starting solids until 6 months, but today we were all sharing an apple, and he was going nuts trying to grab it, so we let him gum it and suck on it.  The boy LOVED it.  But you know who might have loved it even more?  Riley. She couldn't stop smiling and shouting "he's EATING it!!!"  He would drop it, and she would help him get it back in his mouth. 

I'm thinking of going with the baby led weaning approach with him, mostly because I can't stand the idea of having to steam and puree foods, and it will be so much easier than spoon feeding him.  Problem is, we don't have a high chair for him at the moment.  Guess I still have a few weeks to figure that out.  We're going to be pretty strict about what foods we give him as I worry a bit about food allergies, but we'll start with some pretty basic ones so hopefully we won't have any issues.

He still doesn't have any teeth but I can feel his 2 bottom ones right under the gums.  Sort of dreading having those little chompers come in since he has started biting me while nursing already, and it hurts with no teeth, and I know all too well how much it hurts WITH teeth!!

Oh yeah, forgot to mention naps.  Up until 2 days ago, he slept no longer than 40 minutes.  Every. singe. nap.  If the timing worked out, sometimes I could get him and Riley to nap at the same time, and then after he woke up 40 minutes later, I could bring him in bed with me and nurse him to sleep for another hour or so.  But the stars don't always align like that, so mostly he was taking a bunch of cat naps during the day.  Then all of a sudden yesterday he busted out with an hour and 40 minutes sleep.  Twice.  No interventions required.  Then today he had an hour and a half sleep, but then two of his standard 40 minute ones.  So who knows what tomorrow brings in terms of naps. :)

Oh yeah and?  He still LOVES his big sister.  Big time.

So that's the latest on our little Jack Jack...