Roli-Poli

A breakthrough! Cooper can now roll over on his own. Wanna hear it? Here it go...

Cheryl, our daycare provider, found a way to get Cooper to sleep in the afternoon. She put him on his belly. He fusses for about five minutes with her (2o minutes with Abbie or me), then falls asleep. So we've given it a try during the day, and it seems to work to a small extent. He still wakes after 30 minutes.

That's the prelude to the breakthrough. On Saturday April 30th, I went to Busch Gardens for a cheer competition that my squad was particpating in. As I was driving back in the afternoon, I was on the phone with Abbie. She was playing with Cooper in the bedroom. She had him on his belly on the bed. As we talked, she pulled out the video camera and taped Cooper playing on the bed. Well, darned if he didn't begin to figure out that he can push himself over to his side using his feet, as long as his arms aren't in the way. On video, while talking to me on the phone, she watches Coop roll to his side, and then all the way over. She about cried with joy. It was special that we both got to share in it AND we caught it on tape, too.

Well, every rose has its thorn. Now, we can't get him to sleep on his belly because he just rolls his happy ass over to his back. Cheryl can't get him to stay belly-side down either. We've had to resort to putting him in a special bed that sits in his crib which prevents him from rolling over to his back...just to his side.

It is wonderful to see him making progress. Updating his eczema, we think its due to seasonal allergies, exacerbated by food allergies. He didn't have any eczema before March, when the weather turned warm and the flowers and trees began pollenating. We think that allergen type foods may have weakened his immune system enough that seasonal allergies came out and gave the eczema something to live off of. We're still experimenting with creams and lotions. Just not wanting to use the prescription drug Eladil since research has shown its linked to cancer over prolonged use. And I'm not about to put something that's bad for an adult in my child.

It's been tough on Abbie. When we go out to eat, all those goodies we enjoyed before are now forbidden so as to keep Cooper from having a reaction. So we're definitely watching what we eat. Upside to this...we've both lost a good amount of weight just by dietary changes alone (and maybe Abbie's Wednesday walks with Dawn Guenthner).