Back to the Doctor we go!

Somehow we found ourselves back at the pediatrican this week. David had an all over red bumpy rash (with a LOT on his stomach). In addition to the rash he is covered with excema on his legs, arms, head, and face; so he is just one uncomfortable baby right now! His day care told us that he wouldn't let them put him down and they couldn't take care of him in his current state because he was so uncomfortable he was being fussy. We took him to the doctor fully thinking that the doctor would say his rash was viral. That did not happen. The doctor said viral rashes are little red bumps but they are a little more under the skin as opposed to his that feel like sand paper. She said the it was either an allergic reaction or contact rash. Since he hasn't been wearing any new clothes and we haven't been feeding him anything but formula since his RSV a few weeks ago, the doctor concluded that he was allergic to milk proteins in his formula. This was not good news for us! She wants us to switch him to allementum but it is twice the cots of other formula! So, we are going to switch him back to soy formula. He had soy originally and it made him constipated (thats why the doctor didn't reccommend soy), but we are going to hopefully control the constipation with fruit juice and suppositories. I feel so bad for David that he is so uncomfortable. In the mean time, we are lathering his whole body with lotion and prescription strength cortisone cream. He's being a good sport about it and laughs when we put it on.

Speaking of laughing, lately David has been doing this fake sort of sounding chuckle. You can tell he is trying to immitate us. It is cute. Then, today he really started belting out some belly laughs over and over again and it was so wonderful. Zach and I were just on cloud 9 it was so exciting to us! In other good news, David has slept through the night IN HIS CRIB for three nights in a row!

First Shoes

David wore his first pair of shoes! They were a boot type shoe that velcroed. They were sized 6-12 months, so I figured at 5 months he could probably fit in them. Sure enough, he did! These pictures were taken from the other weekend when Zach's friend Justin and his girlfriend Jenna came to visit. We had a good time with company. We get lonely out here in WR with no friends!

Exersaucer

We purchased an exersaucer off of craigslist for $30. I was a bit hesitant because this is a lot of money to spend on something that isn't totally necessary, but we took the plunge. David loves it. It has taken the place of his bouncy chair. He sits and plays in it when we eat dinner, do laundry, and clean up. Sometimes when we are holding him and he is fussy we put him in it and he gets happy. His exersaucer has a castle theme. There are several toys on it, though the one that makes lights and noise doesn't work anymore. He loves trying to pull all of the toys and stick them in his mouth. The cats are naturally curious at this new toy, and when they walk by David grabs them. Surprisingly, they don't run away. They are so deprived of attention these days that they enjoy grabbing from a baby. I'll post a picture but I'm at work right now and don't have my camera.

David has gotten over his RSV illness and is back to eating! He was actually better last week. Though, a couple days this week he has been running a slight fever and has a rash all over his body (but mostly on his stomach). Because his fever has been low, we have not taken him to the doctor. He is still eating plenty and we figure he might just be fighing off a bug.

I'll tell you about one funny story this weekend. We usually go to the contemporary service at church than sunday school. Well, we decided to do Sunday School first and then church because the SS class we had been going to was mostly older couples and we wanted to see if the other class had some people more our age. Well, the new class was small- about 4 couples plus us. (and they were on average younger). Well, I'm talking to this one girl and I hear Zach out of the corner of my ear telling these other couples 'Yeah we had our baby 81/2 months after we were married- we didn't wait long!" I was thinking why is he saying this? We got pregnant after we got married! (We got married Nov. 4th and David was born Aug. 17 - his due date was actually the 22nd but I got induced early). That isn't even true! So, I'm all embarrased in front of all these people. Later, I ask him about it- (I wasn't close enough to him to correct him at the time) and he says 'Oh, I was thinking pregnancy was 8 months'. Sheesh! How embarrasing!

Nasty RSV has taken over my little baby!

Poor little David started getting sick last Saturday. Sunday he was extremely fussy and not well- we thought it was a common cold. Monday, the day care called Zach and said he had to pick David up immediately because David was throwing up and not breathing right and having diarriah. Zach took him to the pediatrician and he got diagnosed with RSV . His symptoms include the following: nose congestion, LOTS of wheezing, fever, coughing, having trouble breathing, fussiness, and loss of appetite. On Tuesday David would not drink a thing- no formula and no pedialite. We stayed in touch with the doctor and because he wouldn't drink anything and the little pedialite that we got him to swallow with a dropper he threw up, and he had diarrhea the night before, the doctor had us take him to the hospital for dehydration. So, all of Tuesday night until Wed. morning we were in the hospital. It was so sad because it took them nearly 2 hours to find a vein and get and IV in him (although it only took 2 tries). Apparently, when you are dehydrated it is harder to locate your veins. He cried the whole time and I felt terrible for him. After he had some breathing treatments, oxygen treatments, numerous tests and chest ex rays, and fluids pumped into him we were sent home Wednesday AM. Poor David is still sick and having a hard time with this nasty virus. He is taking albuteral three times a day and prednisone once a day to help him breath and tylenol to fight the fever. Zach and I have been alternating taking sick days because David is too sick to go to day care. Which, I'm sure he caught this virus at day care so it probably wouldn't even matter, but he needs to have more attention and be held more when he is sick so day care wouldn't be good. Please pray that David fights off this awful virus. We want our sweet, healthy little boy back!

Sad Story

I usually keep up with the news while at work. Actually my friend Melissa (who works at Childrend's Healthcare of Atlanta) and I have kind of an ongoing competition of who can find the most bizarre or shocking news stories. Today I found a very sad story, and although I read sad, unfortunate stories all the time, I feel compelled to try to help these people. So if you feel so compelled, I think you can donate clothes or money. I think I am moved by this story in particular because I think of all those little kids and what babies and kids need and what they don't have (and they didn't have insurance).
http://www.theindychannel.com/news/14989353/detail.html

Head Scratching

Within the past month David has become a professional head scratcher. We call his left hand his 'danger hand' because he always lifts it up to scratch his head. He usually scrathes when he is tired, waking up, hungry, or the even the slightest bit uncomfortable. Because of this we have to keep mits on him at night and I know they keep mits on him all day at day care. I feel bad about this because I know he is discovering his hands and toys and touching things at this age. But, if we don't use the mits we end up with a bloody mess with scratches all over his head and blood on his sleeve. I thought he would grow out of this, but it's been happening for over a month now. Is this normal? Does anyone have any suggestions? My poor little man!

In other news, we have started David on baby food! We use rice cereal mixed with Apple Juice (AJ to help with his contipation problem- recommended by the doctor) and he likes it ok. He will eat everything we put in his mouth but sometimes makes sour faces. We have also tried vegetables and he loves them. His favorites are peas and sweet potatoes. We decided to do veggies before fruit and last night for the first time we tried pears. I thought he would love them becuase he has loved the veggies and they say babies love fruits. However, this was the first time I litterally could not get him to eat. He spit out everything I did get in his mouth (and he was in a good mood). For some reason, he hated the pears. I'll just have to try again later! As you can imagine, the mess involved with baby food is much greater than that involved with bottles. We have never really had to use bibs before, but we definitly have to with the baby food. I was expecting the mess, but Zach was shocked at the mess. It was so funny! I said it's only going to get worse from here! Just wait until he starts using his hands and plays with food!

Yumm, these fingers taste so good!

This was a picture right before David rolled over. Fun times!