Jack & Kai - Update

Here's the little man waking up from a nap stretching out his legs, despite who is at his feet. Kai will put up with a lot just for a cuddle. Poor kitty!

The update...Jack's 7 months, 4 weeks here -- with three (3!) new teeth coming in. An upper right incisor broke through this past weekend and his front two teeth are not far behind. They seem to be causing quite a bit of pain and some sleeplessness.

And droooooooool! Lots and lots of drool. So much so that he has two terrible red patches - one on his left cheek and the other on his chin. Poor guy has had them for at least a month and a half. The last time we remember him having clear skin was in Hilton Head in late May.

Thw patches get yellow and flakey and can look like a cut or burn when they act up. Ouch! We brought him to the doctor who said, "He has and always will have sensitive skin." Basically, there's nothing we can do, but keep it dry and clean and maybe put a little Hydrocortisone. It sometimes seems to help. Another doctor warned us that the cortisones may cause skin discoloration, so we backed off.

A couple friends and, yet, another doctor recommended Aquaphor. I was ready to write the company with a big thank you because his patches were dissapearing. Sadly, even the Aquaphor stopped working.

As for sleeping, he's better today than last week. He was waking up nearly on the hour. We think it was teething and a little separation anxiety. It's just so hard to say, and he won't tell us! We got lots of recommendations. One of the suggestions is to have him cry it out again, but our problem is finding a good time to try this (and it sucks!). John's back to work and we have two vacations planned. It's impossible to do unless you have the time and attention to do it properly.

That said, I pick him up when he cries and we've tried a little Motrin. After a few rough days of waking up around the clock, he wakes up maybe three times - one to eat - and sometimes four or five. But a couple of these are consecutive where he requires just a little soothing to go back to sleep.

If he pops up and I'm too tired to rock and rock and rock, I will bring him to bed. It's crowded and not the most comfortable, but hey! He slept from 1:30 a.m. to 8 a.m. this morning snuggled by my side. Zzzzz!

I think babies are always changing and no two are alike. You just have to hang in there and follow your gut.