Big & Strong

We took Ryder for his 4 month checkup this morning, which came along with two shots. He did pretty good for having to sit in the office for two friggin hours. While we were sitting in the waiting room (which by the way is the same waiting room I sat in as a child, and strangely enough, my doctor still works for the group and I can remember being like four years old and thinking this man was soooo old with his gray hair, and he's still a doctor there today- not Ryder's though). Anyway, I was looking around at all the toys and books in the waiting room and wondering why on earth would you let your child play with these things? Children are at the doctor for a reason and those places are germ central. That just bothers me.

Well, Ryder's a big boy - weighs 14 lb 5 oz, is 25 inches long, and has a head circumference of 43 cm. When we went back to get him weighed, the nurse tech says, "Okay na, scrip him down to his pampas" - love it. I wanted to ask his doctor what that was percentile wise, but we were already there for so long and I felt bad asking any more questions, so there you go. Our main concern was his poor little sandpaper-feeling face. It has red patches all over it, is bumpy, and itches him like crazy. He is constantly scratching it and rubbing it and it's just so sad. I keep Aquaphor on him all the time but it's just not working. Dr. Penny said we could mix together Aquaphor and Hydrocortisone cream and put it on his face and his cradle cap. I am hoping this works, I'm ready for him to look and feel like a soft little baby. He's been like this since he was about three weeks old, so I've really forgotten what it was like to feel his soft skin.

She suggested I give up milk products for one week, because sometimes it causes these things in babies. Then in about two weeks I'll start him on rice cereal and two weeks after that she suggested we start him on applesauce. We've been putting him to sleep around 7:30 p.m. and waking him again around 10 p.m. to feed him one last time for the night and he makes it until 6:30 or 7 a.m., but I think we're going to try to let that last feeding be at 7:30 p.m. and just see how long he goes, since she said he needs about 12 hours of sleep anyway. In a way, I hope this works, but it's also kind of sad because I look forward to having that last bit of time together each night and rocking him to sleep. Otherwise, I'll get home with him at 5:30, feed him, then put him to bed a short while later, and that's it.

We've noticed him develop so much lately. I held him in my lap last night when we were eating dinner, and when I would bring my fork to my mouth to eat, I noticed him leaning forward puckering his lips like he wanted some, so cute. Also, we have this book that sits on my bedside table, so I always read it to him while we're sitting on the bed. JM said he pulled it out this morning to read to him and he noticed Ryder light up when he saw it. He's also shaking his rattle. He's not able to pick it up too good yet, but if I set it on his stomach and his hand is already near, he'll pick it up and lightly shake it. He's given me about 2 small laughs, nothing hysterical, just something that sounded kind of like a few "fake" laughs. He does make all kind of noises though, which are getting louder and louder. The doctor asked if he was rolling over yet, and he answer is no, and it doesn't seem like he's anywhere near doing it. When we put him on his belly for tummy time, he starts screaming. She said we've just got to do it because this is what will get him ready to roll over and even crawl. We'll work better on it.

Are we unfit parents for letting Ryder practice driving at such an early age? We were only going across town, not to Jackson or anything. Kidding, we drove about 5 houses down to our friends house for New Years Day black eyed peas!

Look at that poor little baby face, so red and scratchy, it hurts me just looking at it. I can't wait for it to be better for his sake.