Lately...

It's time for a new post! Life is so busy with a mobile baby who doesn't sleep as much as he used to, so I rarely have time for blogging. :)

Here is some of what's been going on with us...

Lawson had to go back to the pediatrician the first week of February because he stopped sleeping AGAIN. We suspected it was his reflux, but wanted to rule out anything else like an ear infection. Perfectly healthy- except the reflux! The pediatrician increased his dosage of Prevacid, and he has seemed much better since. He still has rough days, but overall he is a happy baby and we are looking forward to when he grows out of this reflux (between 6-9 months of age).


Our sweet friends Ashley and Luke welcomed baby Lane into the world on February 13th. He is precious and we can't wait for the boys to grow up together! Holding tiny Lane made me miss Lawson as a tiny baby, but I am loving this stage so much! He is so fun and so interactive, and I'm trying to cherish every minute with him so that I don't miss anything!

Lawson's first Valentines Day!!

Lawson had his DOC band check up (they are weekly) on February 15th, and his therapist said he is AT LEAST HALFWAY DONE! That means only 2-4 more weeks! His head is looking awesome so far! We are very pleased with the progress. I will definitely be doing a post with final results after we get the photos.

No one really tells you this when you become a mother, but one of the BEST parts of motherhood is watching Chris and Lawson interact. It makes my heart want to burst seeing them play together and seeing how much they love each other. Here is a sweet picture of the two of them. Lawson was in his own bed perfectly fine, and I was getting ready for bed and when I came out of the bathroom, this is what I saw. Melt. My. Heart. Chris hadn't gotten to see him that day because of school, so he got him out and loved him for a bit!

Lawson sits on his own!!!

Lawson is doing great with solids now. He has tried peas, rice cereal (HATED both), banana (LOVED), apples, squash, zucchini, sweet potato, pears, oatmeal, and avocado. He likes everything except the peas and cereal. He spit them both out, like ALL the way out, until there wasn't a morsel left in his mouth, ha! He is a great eater though and has gotten the hang of it quickly! He eats three meals a day now, and that has really helped with a schedule.

Here he is eating a "nana."

Here he is "helping" Mommy take pictures with the phone!

Dakota is still as sassy as ever, and loves helping with her baby brother. She only doesn't want him around when he stinks, haha!

My mom made a playroom for the kids at their house, so Dakota is loving spending time over there, and of course she loves hanging out with the "boys" at her other grandparents' house too playing bounce houses and racing cars! :)

Lawson is a rolling machine, and he "scoots" everywhere now! He definitely can't be trusted to stay in one spot. :) He doesn't really look close to crawling, and that's totally ok with his daddy and I. We aren't ready for that I don't think!

Oh, and on a side note...can anyone believe that my baby boy will be SIX months old in a few weeks. I don't think I'm ready to have a baby closer to one year old than to birth! YIKES!

FIVE months old!

Lawson, you are FIVE months old!

Here is what you are up to:

• You wear a size 2 diaper
• You wear 3-6 months (or 6 months) in most things, but 9 months in sleepers. You are TALL like Daddy.
• You are about 15 pounds and 26 inches long.
• You can roll over front to back and back to front and you are a tummy sleeper now. That really makes me nervous, but you do sleep better that way!
• You started eating food last week! You hate peas, and you REALLY hate brown rice cereal. You like squash and apples, and LOVE bananas. Other foods you will try this month are sweet potato, zucchini, and avocado.
• You are so happy now during the days and smile at everyone. You also like to people watch and take everything in. You are so curious.
• EVERYTHING you touch goes into your mouth.
• You can put your own paci in. Daddy and I watch you playing with your paci on the monitor at night, and you laugh at us if we take it from you and grab it back.
• You go to sleep so well now! You don't want to be held or rocked to sleep (sad). We put you in your crib and turn your soother on and you watch the fish and play with your feet for a few minutes then you roll to your tummy and go to sleep.
• You give us kisses now. You grab our faces and shove your mouth on us. It's really sweet (and really slobbery)!
  
• You are hilarious! Your facial expressions crack us up!

Here are some photos from this month:

Standing on your own!

With your friend Dawson. He's 3 months older than you.

With your girlfriend, Abby, at daycare. Too cute!

Eating for the first time. You thought it was SUPER fun!

You LOVE baths!

Playing with Daddy's phone. Our phones are your favorite toy.

Eating your feet! Silly man!

Early morning playtime and smiles. :)

Cups, your other favorite toy.

The first time you rolled on your tummy to sleep. This was at day care.

Sleeping on your side in your crib.

Happy FIVE months sweet boy! You are so sweet and we love you more each day. We can't believe that in just a few weeks you will be half a year old! Time flies!

DOC Band

This post is very late, but I've been busy! :)

At Lawson's 2 month appointment, his pediatrician noticed that his head was "out of round." Basically, he had a flat spot. She referred us to Cranial Technologies (the people who make the DOC band).

At the appointment at Cranial Technologies, they took photos of his head in all different positions and went over why his head was shaped funny.

Basically, Lawson was head down in-utero from about 20 weeks on. He was resting his head on my pelvic bone. The brain will grow in the path of least resistance, so all that time in my belly, his brain was growing out everywhere but where he was resting his head. Once out, his brain was just accustomed to growing that way, so it kept growing in every spot except the "flat spot." This caused some misshaping of his head. The purpose of the band is to place resistance everywhere except the flat spot so that his head will grow out in the spot where it hasn't been growing. See the pictures below for a better explanation. :)


Here is his head at birth. You can see how it kind of grows up instead of out in the back like it should.


Here's the spot of concern, and the main reason we chose to go with the band. The first picture was taken at 2.5 months, the second at 3.5 months. You can see that the flat spot in the back right had gotten worse over that month. The band puts resistance on the back left and leaves the back right open to grow.




These pictures show how his head continued to grow up (taller) instead of out in the back. You can see how his head is taller in the second picture. Also, isn't his face too freaking cute??? :)


These pictures show how his head grew up instead of out. The back shouldn't look that flat. The bottom right picture shows what Cranial Tech hopes his head looks like after 4-8 weeks of wear.


The band hasn't seemed to bother him at all. He gets to take it off for one hour per night for bath and cleaning, and he doesn't get fussy with it on or anything. It's already been two weeks down and we are seeing great results!


Here he is jumping with his band on.

And sleeping with it on. Sweet face. :)

And his confused burrito look with the band on. :) LOVE HIM!

Here is a picture after just one week of wear! We are so so so pleased with the results so far. I see major improvements even after one week. Cranial Technologies is out of network for our insurance, so this has been a very expensive journey. We had the option of going with Star Cranial instead (in network), but after researching and talking with our pediatrician, we just thought the risk of no results was too great. The Star Band is more helmet like (covers the whole head), and is very heavy. This DOC band is really light hypoallergenic foam and doesn't even phase Lawson at all. Also, the pictures of results speak for themselves. Some parents who use Star Band even end up at Cranial Tech with a DOC band afterward because the Star band didn't work! We didn't want to take that chance! Although it has been very expensive, we are happy with our choice and after seeing the results after just one week, we know we made the right decision. :)


He has been in it two weeks now, and his results at his appointment today were even better! His therapist said she was very pleased with his results so far, so hopefully he won't have to be in it too much longer! :) I love my sweet little helmet boy.