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thirteen months
On Saturday the prince was thirteen months old.
He's sleeping a lot better; lately bedtime is pretty much a nonevent, and he mainly sleeps through the night with only the occasional minute or so of audible fussing in the dark hours. Unfortunately, that's enough to wake Himself even if the prince doesn't need either of us to come in and pat him, and it's hard for Himself to get back to sleep, so he's sleeping the least well of the three of us. :-( But it's still a big, big improvement.
Part of the improvement is down to putting a blanket on him at bedtime, which you wouldn't think would be such a revolutionary act. But we were religious about not putting things in the crib with him in the first year - we asked once he could sit up on his own, and his pediatrician said it was still best to wait until 12 months - and then a week or so after his birthday, Himself noticed that kiddo was burrowing into his mattress when we put him down and suggested that might be contributing to the pretty severe chafing on his cheeks. Maybe he was just cold, poor bug. So covering him with the blanket does seem to have helped a bit; he doesn't scoot right into the corner of the crib as fast or as often, and he doesn't stir and fuss as much.
Alas, it only helped with his face a little bit, and all the creams and oils and lotions we tried were also only helping a little bit - and by yesterday they were only helping for sort of a couple of hours and then the reaction would rebound, plus he was covered with pinprick rash on his back and his chest, and he had some wretched-looking eczema on the back of one knee that was no longer responding to hydrocortisone or anything, and we were supposed to take him to the doctor for the second half of his flu shot but ended up taking him to ask what we could do about his skin instead. Now he has an antibiotic and a prescription cream for impetigo, and after only one dose of the former he looked a lot better this morning.
One dose, that is, and a bleach bath. Bleach. Bath. Himself read that on the internet and my first reaction was "I am not bleaching the baby. Not unless a real live medical professional tells me it's okay." But he was reading me a thing from the American Academy of Dermatology (or some such professional organization) where a study on bleach baths was cut short because the test group was showing such astonishing improvement that they wanted the control group to get the benefits as well. Which is a pretty persuasive item, I admit. And then our pediatrician brought it up herself. Seriously diluted bleach, of course. I think it's two teaspoons per gallon? Anyway we got the instruction to do that for 20 minutes each night for five nights, and last night was the first night - we only managed 10 minutes before the prince's little fingers and toes were wrinkled and he was shivering and crying to get out of the water, but then he fell asleep over his bedtime bottle and seemed to be sleeping so peacefully for the first time in a couple of days that I executive-decided not to wake him up to brush his little teeth or in fact do anything but turn off the lights and put him down and call it a night. Either the chill or the itch broke through around 3am, apparently, because Himself said there was fussing then and also at 4am, but only for a minute or so each time. So hopefully further evenings of bleach bathing - and possibly a warmer blanket - will help him feel even more comfortable.
He is *this close* to walking - in 48 hours he went from only staggering about holding onto our hands to walking unassisted behind a pushing train toy he has - and he can almost use a spoon by himself as well. Which of course means he is impatient with being spoon fed by anyone *but* himself. There's going to be more yogurt and applesauce on the dining room rug for a little while, I expect.
He's sleeping a lot better; lately bedtime is pretty much a nonevent, and he mainly sleeps through the night with only the occasional minute or so of audible fussing in the dark hours. Unfortunately, that's enough to wake Himself even if the prince doesn't need either of us to come in and pat him, and it's hard for Himself to get back to sleep, so he's sleeping the least well of the three of us. :-( But it's still a big, big improvement.
Part of the improvement is down to putting a blanket on him at bedtime, which you wouldn't think would be such a revolutionary act. But we were religious about not putting things in the crib with him in the first year - we asked once he could sit up on his own, and his pediatrician said it was still best to wait until 12 months - and then a week or so after his birthday, Himself noticed that kiddo was burrowing into his mattress when we put him down and suggested that might be contributing to the pretty severe chafing on his cheeks. Maybe he was just cold, poor bug. So covering him with the blanket does seem to have helped a bit; he doesn't scoot right into the corner of the crib as fast or as often, and he doesn't stir and fuss as much.
Alas, it only helped with his face a little bit, and all the creams and oils and lotions we tried were also only helping a little bit - and by yesterday they were only helping for sort of a couple of hours and then the reaction would rebound, plus he was covered with pinprick rash on his back and his chest, and he had some wretched-looking eczema on the back of one knee that was no longer responding to hydrocortisone or anything, and we were supposed to take him to the doctor for the second half of his flu shot but ended up taking him to ask what we could do about his skin instead. Now he has an antibiotic and a prescription cream for impetigo, and after only one dose of the former he looked a lot better this morning.
One dose, that is, and a bleach bath. Bleach. Bath. Himself read that on the internet and my first reaction was "I am not bleaching the baby. Not unless a real live medical professional tells me it's okay." But he was reading me a thing from the American Academy of Dermatology (or some such professional organization) where a study on bleach baths was cut short because the test group was showing such astonishing improvement that they wanted the control group to get the benefits as well. Which is a pretty persuasive item, I admit. And then our pediatrician brought it up herself. Seriously diluted bleach, of course. I think it's two teaspoons per gallon? Anyway we got the instruction to do that for 20 minutes each night for five nights, and last night was the first night - we only managed 10 minutes before the prince's little fingers and toes were wrinkled and he was shivering and crying to get out of the water, but then he fell asleep over his bedtime bottle and seemed to be sleeping so peacefully for the first time in a couple of days that I executive-decided not to wake him up to brush his little teeth or in fact do anything but turn off the lights and put him down and call it a night. Either the chill or the itch broke through around 3am, apparently, because Himself said there was fussing then and also at 4am, but only for a minute or so each time. So hopefully further evenings of bleach bathing - and possibly a warmer blanket - will help him feel even more comfortable.
He is *this close* to walking - in 48 hours he went from only staggering about holding onto our hands to walking unassisted behind a pushing train toy he has - and he can almost use a spoon by himself as well. Which of course means he is impatient with being spoon fed by anyone *but* himself. There's going to be more yogurt and applesauce on the dining room rug for a little while, I expect.