Better than Mittens.... No More Scratching!

The last 4 or 5 weeks we have been dealing with a "skin irritation" with our little Oliver... Initially we weren't exactly sure what we were dealing with... So, treatment was more or less stabs in the dark...
Is it a food allergy? We eliminated one food after another only to watch his condition decline...
Is it certain fabrics?... Okay... nothing but 100% cotton...
Is it detergent? Okay we'll wash everything in hot water only...
Is it bath soap? Okay then we'll bathe him in water only!
This has been my new mother's constant source of anxiety since before Christmas... I've been a ball of stress!

Well, the good news is, we have finally settled on a diagnosis; and are working on getting rid of the problem. Every day he's improving, praise God! I can get into details in a seperate post...
What I want to share here is my new invention (shown in pictures) that has been dreamed up out of necessity. Through out this crazy itchy scratchy nightmare, Oliver's skin continually flares up with itchy break outs here and there. Cortizones not only lose their effectiveness, but they ultimately feed the problem. Then, just when something about heals up, he scratches his skin open again... it's a never ending battle. We started swaddling him again at night and for naps... but little Houdini gets his hands out and begins scratching in the middle of the night before ever making a peep! I have walked in to find him more than half dozen times a bloody mess literally. SOOOOOOO frustrating!!!!!!
Anyways... the little mittnes are fine for tiny ones... but he is about too old to be swaddled and has long ago figured out how to get mittens off... If they stay on, even the cotton is TOO abrasive for his delicate skin! So it's been 2 steps fwd, one step back over and over again!

Anyways, I came up with this idea on sunday morning; laying in bed. After church, I came home and made a couple proto-types. They were too small... so today I whipped up a couple bigger ones. I think we may have a winner here.
The key here is 2 things:
1, the garment cannot be removed by the baby... but it can't choke or injure either. and
2, the satin fabric... no matter how much he rubs his skin, it won't scratch. At least I hope not.

He had a litte nap with it on and it looks to be a success... However, to be precautionary we have it on under the swaddler for tonight. I need to have a full day of naps to observe tomorrow and probably make another even a tiny bit bigger to fit on the outside of a blanket sleeper.

So what do you think?? Is this something you would use? Should I try and make more?? I think I would call it "Better than Mittens" or something like that...

PS Ignore the ugly gold color... it's the only color of this material I had... and I wanted to see how it would work first :) Thoughts Appreciated!


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Singing Baby

Being home with a baby all day every day I do things a bit differently than I used to... when I was home alone a lot self-employed. Mainly I am refering to the noise I make... Pre-baby, I would often talk to my "studio audience" about what I was doing... or what I was about to do... that, or I would have music Jammin... and I'd be singin along.
Now-a-days I find that I still do lots and lots of singing.. somehow finding ways to make singing about every little thing I do in 2-parts always ending in words that rhyme with eachother... I guess that's just what you do with babies. You sing. I think it's soothing to both mom and baby, I don't know.
Anyways, I am pretty convinced that Little Oliver has caught on to this form of communication. And I gotta document it cause it's pretty stinkin cute... and hilarious too.
When we were home in Chicagoland over Christmas, my sister gave me a few cd's on which she had burned her favorite kids songs. Earlier this week, I finally had time to rip them and get them on my MP3 player. We've been listening to children's music most of the week, and Oliver loves it.
So, today, I was holding him up by my shoulder and dancing around the family room, singing along to the children's songs... Just something to do. Heck I used to sing and dance around eveyday by myself... now I got a buddy! And he started in with his cute scratchy voice... "ooooooaaaahhh waaaaaaoooooo ooooowaaaa" (and so on) I thought... He's so cute, I love the way he sounds when he tries to make sounds.... Then I noticed that during instrumental, or if I wasn't singing he'd stop. I thought, "could he possibly be SINGING???" ..."no way!" Then the song ended. Oliver stopped too... "is it coincidence?" The next song started up, the singing started, so did mommy and so did Oliver... it was the cutest thing ever... we sang a couple more songs... before nap... we were livin in the moment... loved it!
Mike cam home from work, and after dinner I was in the bedroom putting away laundry. I heard him singing Fifteen Animals, to Ollie... we've been singing that book to him since he was a week old. And I heard Oliver chime in and start singing. I came out to tell Mike "He's singing, he loves to sing" He tested the waters a bit... and sure enough Oliver stopped when Mike stopped and sang when he sang.

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12 Week Update

Wow! The time is flying by!

Wednesday was oficially Oliver's 12 week birthday. It's crazy how timely the milestones are!

The First two weeks were quiet... lots of sleeping eating and snuggling. It's almost as if I have to jog my memory here to remember how he has progressed.... and it's not even been 3 full months... maybe it's the lack of sleep... haha

Just about 2 1/2 weeks, he realized he was no longer in the womb... or so it seemed. Oliver was still his happy and easy going self... until about 4pm then he'd start to get antsy and fussy up to bed time. For the next 3-4 weeks this went on.. and bed time was DRAMA. Poor Mike didn't get to see his happy lil guy except on the weekends. I would say "I swear he is not like this all day... it was a bit frustrating of a stage. But now seems a distant memory.

I kept asking other mom's for insight and the most common answer I would get was "I don't remember". So, I began to bury my self in Baby books... I found "The baby whisperer" and "Healthy sleep habits, happy baby" to be extremely helpful. I also logged eat and sleep times round the clock for a few days. What I learned was that even though he was getting tons of sleep, he needed more... we were always trying to stave off bed time 'til 7-730... he needed to be in bed before then. Still does... so we've learned that's just what we do... once 6pm comes around... we have to be home to put bubba in bed ... makes for a heck of a social life... haha. But since we figured that out... no more crabbies!

Around 6 weeks the Adkins came down to celebrate Thanksgiving with us... Oliver got to meet 4 of his cousins who wanted to love on him 24-7. This was also fun because he was learning to focus on faces and smile :) It was beautiful! The next 4 weeks were pretty routine... eating, sleeping, snuggling growing... by 6 weeks old he was ready for 3-6 month clothing size.

The 4 weeks leading up to Christmas were pretty routine... mostly hanging out getting ready for Christmas, lots of naps and growing. Our drive went great... about 14 hrs each way... no crying but about the last 10-15 mins each way! He loved meeting all the smiling faces but brought back a cold! Or is it teething? We don't know. We got back and he graduated to the 6-9 month clothing.. and pretty well fills it out! He also graduated to the non-swaddle sleepers! What a big boy :) We've been working through a whole body rash/eczema and a ton of boogers this past week and a half. Earlier this week I got panicky... probably as all first time moms do the first time their baby gets sick. So Tuesday we took him to the doc. He said this is allergy related so I am changing my diet. He prescribed a cortizone cream for the skin which I was hesitant to use... but I had tried EVERYTHING available to me and my poor baby was itchy from head to toe. The cream cleared it up over night... so we're just working on the mucus now... I am hoping it's teething... but also eliminating the common allergens like milk, eggs and nuts in hopes to "figure it out"!

Just wednesday was was his 12 week birthday. He just in these last couple days seems more independant. He likes playing by himself and yesterday I put him down for one of his afternoon naps and heard him doing all kinds of talking to himself. I had to hide around the corner and spy on him it was so darn cute it melted my heart! Everyday is an adventure. Learning new tricks and our love as parents growing all of the time for our sweet adorable son!