Through the Wardrobe...: Five months! a progress report...

Ted has reached five months as of yesterday and with it comes a few new firsts. First Christmas, first horrifying viral rash, first solid foods. So far we've used the baby bullet to make sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, apples, bananas, pears and then store bought peas and green beans. He's liked everything so far, but I did find that if I gave him, say, pears and carrots and I didn't make him eat the carrots first, he wasn't too thrilled with them. Now we have our vegetables before the fruit. I plan to get some more foods to make soon, possibly spinach. Some foods are easier to make in the bullet than others - for instance, I do not like peeling apples. He also had a reaction to bananas, so we'll hold off on those for a while and try again later.

As for the first Christmas, Teddy received a lot of great gifts and, although he wasn't really aware of what was going on, he was sure excited about it. We made salt dough ornaments of Teddy's feet (though they aren't complete yet) to give to his grandparents for Christmas. We spent a lot of time with family, both sides, and we'll see Aunt Stef hopefully this weekend!

Now for the viral rash. We still aren't sure what it was. I consulted with our lab director who is also an infectious disease specialist and she believes it was an enterovirus (of which family coxsackie virus belongs). He never got a fever and always acted perfectly happy, ate well, and slept normally so we weren't terribly worried. This, of course, was until we saw his pediatrician for a second time and he was really concerned. He was afraid it was caused by a herpes virus and because of his eczema it spread everywhere. He told us the herpes virus is pretty much the only virus that could get really bad so he treated him with acyclovir, just in case. He wanted to see us the very next morning to make sure Teddy was doing ok. Herpes viruses can cause meningitis, so I knew enough to be pretty freaked out. He was fine, though and tolerated the acyclovir well. Our lab director doesn't believe it was caused by a herpes virus, however, since Teddy never became febrile and the rash never really seemed to bother him. As of now, his last day on medication, his rash is slowly disappearing. I think within the next few days it will go away completely.

Teddy is rolling front to back and back to front pretty well. He's awkwardly mobile. He tries to get his knees under him but they slide back out. I feel in the next month he'll probably get better at that. His push-ups are getting stronger; he's able to lift his whole chest off the ground. He tolerates tummy time more and can jump in his jumper (with a pillow under his feet - he's still a little short).

I feel like we're entering a fun phase with Teddy. Once he's mobile, some of his frustrations will disappear. He's a generally happy baby and loves to laugh. He's a great night sleeper and we're working on napping routines. Overall, we're doing really well!