maybe we will just skip rolling.....

One of the main reasons that babies roll first is to develop their stomach muscles so they can sit up on their own. Well, apparently my child doesn't like to roll... but his stomach muscles are still developed enough to sit up on his own! They are probably developed enough because we roll him ALL THE TIME in hopes that he will eventually get this rolling thing. Don't get me wrong, he does roll but you have to REALLY motivate him to want something in order to go get it. Stubborn little thing! I have a video of him finally rolling on his own from back to belly but I can't seem to get it to load... but maybe one day i'll get it up!

Kayden has been sitting up for quite a while with support and if he has a toy in front of him to play with he was able to sit up since about 3 weeks ago. The physical therapist would sit him up and keep her hands close by but several times he would sit on his own for a couple seconds. She has been doing that for about 3 weeks now and each time she does it he holds it for a little bit longer.

This past weekend, I decided to get brave and remove the boppy pillow from behind him. We have hardwood floors so I've always been too afraid to remove the boppy pillow. I folded a blanket four times so that it was extra thick and then put another baby blanket on top of that (because of course the other blanket had dog hair all over it... imagine that!) and then put a throw pillow a little way behind him so that it would catch his head if he fell backwards. He did a great job with sitting up on his own! He held it for quite a while, but if he got excited he would just fall backwards. I think since he still hasn't completely mastered rolling, his lower stomach muscles aren't developed enough to where he can keep himself from falling backwards, but he does a great job with sitting up on his own for a little bit! I was nervous that we would be behind on EVERYTHING since we have had such a hard time with rolling... but hopefully the whole rolling thing just isn't that big of a deal. I mean at least he does it... he just isn't that into it :)





Kayden has also started the beginning stages of crawling! He gets his legs and butt up in the air but ccan't seem to figure out the whole arm thing. He will push himself up with his arms, and then when he goes to get his legs and butt up, his arms fall. But it's at a pretty cute process! He's getting there!

Updates on... Everything!

Torticollis-
We have been going to physical therapy once a week ever since we found out he had torticollis. Kayden has responded really well to physical therapy. Ms. Kelly works on stretching out his neck muscles and also works with developmental milestones that he should be reaching.
Kayden can freely look from side to side now, before he would only look to his right because the muscle was so tight he couldn't turn his head the other way. We are still stretching the muscles but for the most part that part of the torticollis is fixed. We are still working on the tilt part though. He still tilts his head a little and still holds his head down rather than lifting it up. He has a hard time holding it up for long periods such as when you put him on his belly and have him push himself up. I also noticed this weekend that he has started to hold himself up a lot longer than he use to. One of the exercises we do to help this is roll him on his right side and hold toys above his head so that he will look up. This is an exercise that is a battle for us because he HATES doing it.
There is no word as to when they think he can stop physical therapy. I think we will probably be going for a while, which is fine by me. I really like having them work on different stuff with him and then showing me what to do. I think they will do another evaluation of him sometime in March, but I'm not sure.

Sleeping-
We are still having issues with sleeping. I have had a very hard time doing the cry it out method. I know many people who have done the cry it out method and it has worked very easily for them. We've had a struggle with it though. Kayden just screams and screams bloody murder. It's not the "i'm just tired so i'll whine a little bit", it's a full out scream which I am having a hard time dealing with. I hate the thought of him laying in his crib all by himself screaming, not knowing if I'm going to come get him or not. We've decided for the time being to let him continue sleeping with us until about 8 months, in May, and then work on sleep training again. I know it will be harder, but I feel like at that age he will have a little bit more of an understanding when we talk to him and it will be easier to do a gradual weaning of sorts. I've read several different things about sitting next to the crib and each night getting further and further away from the crib, etc. We will see. I know he will get it eventually and I'm willing to wait. Sleeping through the night has gotten a lot better though. We usually try to give him a bath around 8:30-9 (or an hour after his bottle that is around 7:30ish.) He will then usually sleep until 11-1130 when we give him another bottle. If he doesn't wake up for this bottle, we usually wake him up so that he isn't waking us up in the middle of the night. After we give him this bottle, he will (most of the time) sleep until 7ish. At this time he will take another bottle and a lot of times go back to sleep until 9. If by 6 months he hasn't cut out his 11 bottle we will start cutting it out. We usually put the rice in his 9 o clock bottle but if we don't wake up around 1130 he will eventually wake us up at 2:30. We are finally back to taking naps in our swing also. Kayden took about a 3 month hiatus from his swing where he wasn't a fan of the swing. Luckily, I can now put him in his swing and he will take a nap so that I don't have to hold him through the whole nap time.

Milestones-
Kayden laughs ALL.THE.TIME. We can always do something to make him laugh and I love it! We are finally getting to where we can get him to roll from back to belly pretty consistently.Due to his neck he has had a lot of trouble rolling over. You have to use your neck muscles in order to turn your head when you roll and to reach your arm across your body to get up the momentum to roll, which is what he is struggling with. He has rolled over twice about a month ago but we have had a hard time getting him to do it again. This past weekend he has rolled over multiple times but you can tell he still really has to work at it and we have to really motivate him with toys in order to get him to do it. He has been doing it continuously though and we don't have to physically help him anymore. Last week at physical therapy, Ms. Kelly only worked on rolling in hopes to get him to start rolling more often. It seems to be working so far. I feel like I can say confidently that we have rolling over now. Kayden's been sitting up for quite a while now, with assistance. He can sit up by himself for a little bit but falls either to the sides or backwards. He's getting there though!

Rolling over!

Since this blog serves as a type of memory book I have to post that today at physical therapy Kayden rolled over from his belly to his back for the first time with no help!! I was so excited and announced to the PT that it was his first time doing that so she had him do it again!! This was big and exciting for us since Kayden will have a little bit of difficulty with these milestones because of his neck. Generally they say they start doing this at about 3 months and he is about to turn 4 months so not to bad! He is doing great with sitting up and grabbing things so overall the PT is encouraged and said he will be able to do almost everything at an average rate especially when his neck is normal.

I haven't tried to get him to do it again since PT because he is so worn out from PT but we are going to see if he will do it later tonight for daddy so a video is to come!