5 1/2 Months

Before our vacation begins tomorrow, I wanted to give a quick update on our little boy. Here's what's new at 5 1/2 months:

• Reflux is MUCH BETTER! Charlie's Zantac prescription was running out and he was doing well so I decided to go without it a few days before refilling it, and he's doing great without it!
• Every day I swear that Charlie is about to cut a tooth and every day there's nothing. The poor guy is drooling all over the place and gnawing on anything he can get his hands on. Hopefully they'll be some relief for him soon.
• He's getting closer to sitting on his own and can now sit up, without any assistance for 5-10 seconds before falling over.
• I'm a little nervous about his weight gain. According to our baby scale he's only gained about a pound in the past 6 weeks. I called the Doctor's office and the nurse didn't seem too concerned but he is falling in the percentages so I'm trying to get him to eat more. The good news is that he will now eat rice cereal with breast milk and without anything else (like applesauce/bananas). The nurse did advise that we don't give him too much baby food other than rice cereal so that he gets plenty of milk - which has more calories.
• Poor Charlie's skin issues are continuing. Everything has cleared up except his eczema. It's really only behind his knees, in his "inner elbow" and sometimes on his neck. We've tried everything - the creams, lotions, special soaps, fewer baths, no fabric softener, extra rinse cycle on all laundry, and special detergent. The only thing that has made a difference so far is the steroid cream they prescribed but they warned us not to use it very often...which is annoying since it's the only thing that works! Luckily Charlie isn't scratching at it so I hope it doesn't bother him. It just looks bad. If it gets any worse we may have to cut dairy from his diet (which is the only thing that worked for his cousin). That would mean switching to soy formula because I'm not cutting dairy from my diet. ;)
• Despite his skin issues and teething(?), for the most part Charlie is a very sweet, fun, happy boy. He has started to squeal a lot too!

Here are some recent pictures:

Meeting Isla Schweers for the first time.

The boy loves his gossip magazines

Ready for the beach!

This is from when he was sick a few weeks ago. He just sat on the bed and watched T.V. with me.