I am not very good at updating the blog in general these days, let alone doing monthly recaps of Dylan's development. Sigh. At any rate, here is what he is up to these days!
His eyes seem to have settled on a very green-heavy hazel-ish color. Beautiful. We're interested to see how they might continue to change.
He is knocking down developmental milestones left and right. He is very interactive with his toys (everything goes in the mouth!) and on his 5-month birthday he started army crawling. Now, 2 weeks later (am I really that late in posting this?) he is rocking on hands and knees, ready to really crawl. I didn't want to read anything in to his early rolling, but it does seem like this kid is on the move. (Owen army-crawled at 6.5 months, in case your memory failed you ;-))
He is not at all interested in food, though. We do Baby Led Weaning (i.e. we skip purees and wait for signs of readiness for soft food chunks that baby feeds himself). He is totally into playing with the foods (so far we have put avocado, banana, and sweet potato in front of him to see what happens) but the second the food touches his mouth, he makes an awful, horrified face. Ah well.
No issue with the food rejection, really, since he is 20.2 pounds. Yup.
So I guess he is still considered "exclusively breastfed". He feeds on demand, approximately every 3 hours or so. His eating and digestion have been a cause for concern, but I will get to that in a minute.
He is a very happy baby, not unlike his brother, though at the same time very different temperamentally-speaking. Dylan is quick to become angry- REALLY angry. But it doesn't happen that often. We are so blessed to have two very sweet little boys.
Dylan loves Sophie, too. I mean LOVES Sophie.
She takes his grabbiness in stride, just sitting still and looking up at us like "save me!" Exhibit A:
Of course, we try to keep him from doing that. But we are so pleased that she doesn't get snippy with him. She is a sweet, sweet dog.
Dylan is vocal, but only in a loud, screechy, "hear what I can do" kind of way. He isn't really putting vowels-consonants together yet, but does on occasion.
He pushes up onto his hands, which I didn't think to document until I just read through Owen's 5 month update and realized that Owen had just started that at 5 months. Dylan has been pushing up on his hands since he was..... like a month old. I will look at past photos to verify but.... yeah. That makes sense since he was then pushing up and rolling at 7 weeks. Like I said, he is a man on the move.
I don't really want to talk about sleep, but I suppose I should note how things are going.
Awful.
Okay, next topic.
Actually, I should say that Dylan is a totally different guy than Owen was when it comes to sleep. Dylan is not as particular about the pacifier, and he generally puts himself to sleep (no crying involved). These are things I tried to instill from Day One. (Look at me- taking All The Credit! Hey, credit where it's due ;-)) I didn't want him to have a crutch, including me. Luckily, he took to that very easily. I'd always just nurse him, maybe rock for a minute, then lay him down and walk out. Some nights/naptimes he'd need a bit of patting on the rear. Some nights/naps he needs a little time to chat to himself, then I go back in and adjust him, tuck him back in, and leave again. On the rare occasion he needs to be nursed to sleep or held in arms until he falls asleep, I am okay to indulge that because honestly, those moments are precious.
But sleeping for long stretches? Not this kid. Owen didn't either, but for different reasons. I am still trying to figure out what exactly is causing Dylan's night wakings, but in general I think it is a combo of a few things: he wants to eat. Fair enough. He is uncomfortable (intestinal issues, again, I am getting to those). And then there is the random waking where he just needs adjusted. No biggie. He is still co-sleeping, which means sometimes he is bed-sharing with me and sometimes he is on his crib mattress on the floor next to my bed. Kraig has taken to sleeping on the couch because he has his own set of sleep issues that he is working through with professionals :-) (this was his idea, not mine!) This is working out well for us to ensure everyone is as rested as possible (I am not at all rested, but it is better than if I were in the same room as a snoring husband!)
I am unsure as to when/how we will transition Dylan to his crib in Owen's room, and it isn't really on my radar considering he is waking A LOT at night. Like, 3-8 times a night. Three times is a really good night. Oh I need one of those nights......
Anyway, the intestinal stuff. First: elimination diets suck. Second: I wish allergy/intolerance testing in infants was more clearcut. What we're dealing with is some strange uh, diaper contents. This has been going on since he was born. Well, after the meconium passed ;-) Since he was gaining weight well and was not in distress, we thought it just must be within a normal range. Then at 4 months I thought perhaps it was causing enough distress that it was tied to the night waking. So I cut out gluten (wheat, barley, rye. So no bread products, or anything containing any wheat, which is to say I can hardly eat anything at all. Ha.) I chose gluten (as opposed to soy or corn) because I am vegan, and wheat/gluten is something I have consistently whereas soy/corn (the other highly allergenic foods) are more inconsistent. I almost immediately saw improvement in his symptoms. If I had even a smudge of gluten (literally, a bite) the symptoms came back.
Then I decided that I felt like crap, I was fatigued and hungry all the time, so since he was still happy and healthy (? seemingly so, at least) on gluten, I could add it back in and deal with the "side effects". His doctor and my midwife both thought it was silly to cut out gluten if it wasn't an all-out allergy. So I added it back in, and boom, the symptoms came back. I waffled a few times over about two weeks about whether or not I should be gluten-free, and all the while his symptoms remained regardless of what I ate. Then they became a lot worse and kept up for 8 days (today) so we went to the doctor to get some answers. Now we have to do some testing and see what comes of it.
Sorry that is all so vague, I don't really want to discuss the details of my son's digestion on here :-)
I am gluten-free still, but that depends on what happens with these labs.
Being vegan and gluten free is hard. Really hard. But this post isn't about me!
To tie this all up in a pretty bow, we love Dylan and think he brings so much joy to our days. He is just wonderful. He also keeps us on our toes and, if you remember, has done so ever since we found out we were pregnant. Between the gestational diabetes, the breech presentation, and these GI issues, we're always trying to figure out a game plan. We are curious to see how that plays out as he gets older ;-)
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