Scenes from Ryan's first 6 weeks

1) The Beam. From the minute we brought Ryan home, he couldn't keep his eyes off the contrasty support beam. At first, he would stare at it only while being held in the leather chair. As he got older, he would track the beam with his eyes from around the room. Finally, at around 6 weeks, he's slowly losing interest in the beam and is beginning to show interest in our faces, with brief moments of eye contact....

2) The Bouncy Ball. When everything else fails, the bouncy ball is guaranteed to calm his frantic crying. We've tried rocking him in our arms, we've tried walking around with him both with and without a carrier, we've tried swings, we've tried white noise, but nothing beats the bouncy ball. However, the problem with the bouncy ball is: (a) it gets tiring, (b) it's a falling hazard, especially when you're sleep deprived and it's the middle of the night, (c) unlike a rocking chair, you can't sleep while on it, (d) it's an eye-sore

3) Baths. Ever since the umbilical cord stump fell off, we've been bathing him almost daily, and every time it's been a breeze. He seems to really enjoy bath time. The only time he cries during bathing is when we remove him from the bath, and that's just for a few seconds. In our history of bathing Ryan, he has only urinated 3 times, and has never pooped (knock on wood).

4) Tummy Time. Everyday we try to give Ryan time on his tummy to work on his neck and upper body muscles. It's so fun to see him on his tummy. It really highlights any development in his strength and motor skills.

Tummy Time on July 25th (26 days old)...


Tummy Time on August 11th (43 days old)...

5) Eczema. Ryan has always had a very red complexion (he must get that from Brooke dad). He would get especially red when he was upset or if he was eating. But around his one month birthday, his face started staying red and his cheeks started to get bumps on them. At first we thought it was baby acne, which is common around this time, but when we took him in for his one month check-up the Dr. casually mentioned it was eczema. He just told us to put a little vaseline on the bad spots. A couple of days later it got really bad and covered his whole face and his ears. On Saturday morning, we woke up to find his right ear swollen to twice the size of his left ear. I always thought eczema was just dry skin, so I thought this was something new and really bad. We ended up taking him to the Urgent Care clinic only to have the doctor confirm that it was just eczema-related inflammation.

After a lot of research, we have a new routine to cope with the eczema:
a) Keep this hands in gloves (or socks) at all times, to prevent him from scratching
b) No more pacifiers, which irritates the skin around his mouth
c) No more washing his face with soap, just warm water
d) Every bath is now immediately followed by a heavy coat of vaseline on the face, ears, and neck

Here's a look at Ryan's skin now. I'll spare you the more gruesome photos of when the eczema was at its worst. (does anybody think his eyes look blue here?)