Baby Update - 50 weeks old

Age:  50 weeks

Weight: I'll be either getting him weighed next week or the week after.

Health: The reflux has been absolutely horrendous over the last few days - lots of vomiting, lots of wind, lots of hiccups and lots of burping/coughing with it at the back of his throat.  It's not been making him too grumpy and he's been having at least a few solid hours of sleep at the start of the night.  I spoke to the GP yesterday and she's asked us to stop the ranitidine, as it's not helping, so I'm weaning it off gradually.  She's prescribed Gaviscon again which I'm going to collect tomorrow to give him just as and when he needs it if he's really struggling.  I started reading a book by "The Reflux Lady" which basically told me to cut everything out of my diet and made me feel like crap.  Our Sleep Consultant has suggested his sleep issues do sound dietary in nature so has asked me to try some exclusions.  Her suggestion was to cut out dairy, soya and gluten then slowly reintroduce but with my own health issues I didn't feel comfortable with all that.  Given that, I discussed it with the GP and she said she is happy to try gradual exclusions before any new medication.  We're excluding dairy for 2 weeks then going to add in a soya exclusion if there's no improvement.  After 6 weeks we will try a gluten exclusion, either with or without dairy/soya depending on if there was any improvement or not.  She also asked me to contact the Paediatrician, as we have an open appointment, but they can't get us in until 22nd January so we've got quite a wait there!  They would expect his reflux to have calmed down by the time he was 1 so it's worth seeing the Consultant just in case, although I'm not looking forward to it as he was incredibly patronising before.  My other concern is that digestive issues are common with EDS so I'd like to rule that out as I'll feel awful if he's inherited my issues and they're worse in him.  In other news, he's cut tooth number 15 and number 16 is nearly cut so maybe that's what's made it worse over the last few days, fortunately they don't seem to have caused him too much pain.  His eczema has stayed away for now though.

Feeding: Food has been a little bit up and down this week but generally pretty good.  I took dairy out of his diet about a week ago and I've taken it out of my diet today too.  His eating is improving with solids too and he can manage the skin on things such as grapes and plums now rather than just chewing the flesh off and spitting the skin back out.

Sleep: We're now paying a monthly subscription to a private group where a lady helps with our sleep issues.  As I mentioned above she thinks that food could be the cause - we did a sleep/food/activity diary for 3 days and she had a good look at it.  There's no quick fix unfortunately and it's going to be a real challenge with me going back to work soon but we'll do anything to help him get some better rest.  Things have improved a tiny bit in that he has been having a solid 2-3 hours after he first goes to sleep at night.  A couple of days this week he's only had one nap so he may be starting to get ready to transition, but other days he's really needed two so I think it'll be a bit hit and miss for a while.  He isn't falling asleep in the pushchair so easily nowadays either.  The other day he was tired so I decided to walk an hour to my business meeting to get him to nap - he stayed awake the whole time, through my meeting and 40 minutes walk back into town to meet ALS.  He went straight down when we got home though and had a solid 2 hour nap!

Routine: We're just letting him rule the roost so to speak.

Likes/dislikes:  He may be slightly coming around to the new car seat and seems to enjoy the panoramic roof, although car journeys are still very tense.  He absolutely loves playing with balls - he always has done - and he'll play fetch by himself, throwing it across the room and following it.  He really enjoys his "Smart Puppy" that plays nursery rhymes.

Firsts:  First proper steps without our encouragement - today he did about 5 or 6 from me to get to my phone on the sofa!

Milestones:  He's really getting more confident on his feet, particularly just this evening.  He dances now when he hears music.  His babbling is really coming on and he now says "mama", "baba", "gaga" and "ya".  When you ask him if he wants something he shouts "ahh" at you as if saying "yes" but isn't using words yet, I really don't think it will be long though.  It's crazy how quickly he's developing at the moment.  If he sees someone with food he goes over to them shouting "mmmmm" too, it's super cute.

Things we did: On Saturday we went into town to do a bit of shopping and then went to the local park with some friends, they came back to ours and we had takeaway and watched a movie.  On Sunday another friend came over to visit and spend some time with ALS and OJ had a good splash in his Tuff Tray!  On Monday we went swimming as usual which OJ really enjoyed, even more than usual.  On Tuesday we had a long walk to my business meeting and then walked into town to meet ALS.  Yesterday Nana and Grandpapa came to visit and today we've just been pottering around, shopping and the like.  We've generally spent lots of time playing together and trying to work on his walking and language skills.

Me: I'm very overwhelmed at the moment with everything.  My business is taking forever to get going thanks to the agencies being unhelpful which means that it's going to start probably around the time I go back to work.  In the next few weeks I'm going to have to deal with my transition back to work, OJ's transition to nursery, figuring out feeding/pumping, dealing with our dietary exclusions, trying to get my business established and the general pressures of daily living, then things will just about stabilise and it'll be Christmas!  I'm also concerned that my weight might dip again now I'm doing the dietary exclusions so I need to keep a close eye on it.

49 weeks 1 day - sleepy boy after a bad night just chewing on his medicine syringe.

49 weeks 2 days - I tried to do an activity rolling balls through a tube but he just pulled the tube off the door so we turned it into sensory play with the sticky tape!

49 weeks 2 days - "Are you taking photos again?"

49 weeks 2 days - he went to bed at 6 while our friends were here, woke at 9 and was still asleep when we went to bed at 11, that's pretty much unheard off!

49 weeks 3 days - I thought he'd just have a splash but he had other ideas, going...

...going...

...gone!  He had a whale of a time though.

49 weeks 3 days - looking cheeky after soaking himself and flooding my kitchen.

49 weeks 5 days - he hasn't figured out how to turn it around yet so he just goes around the other side and pushes it from the front.

49 weeks 5 days - he was supposed to be sleeping but instead he dragged out the rolled up towels (from the gap between the mattress and cot side) and started posting his dummy down the slats and grabbing it.

49 weeks 6 days - just chillin' and emptying everything.

50 weeks - playing peekaboo behind the sofa!

50 weeks - chilling in the trolley.

50 weeks - some rare screen time as he woke up from his nap before we'd finished our episode of Taskmaster, it was a lovely photo of him sitting sleepily on ALS' lap but he moved just as I got my phone out.

50 weeks - mesmerised by the hoover!

50 weeks - ALS' phone camera is so much better than mine - I take dozens of photos and they're nearly all blurred or poorly lit or don't show off OJ's cuteness properly, I take one with his and it's perfect.