Baby Blues

As you can tell from the pictures, Caitlyn’s skin condition has gotten a lot worse. It really is as bad as it looks. And it’s not helping that she keeps scratching or rubbing at it with her hands if she’s not swaddled.

Yesterday, we took her to the doctor to get it checked out, and she said that it was seborrheic eczema. Characteristics of this skin disorder include scaly, flaky, itchy, red skin. We were prescribed some ointment, but there has been no marked improvement yet. I’m just hoping that it’ll improve soon, because it’s quite difficult seeing her like this.

My mom and dad have recommended a home remedy of tea water and salt to bathe her in. They claim when my sister and I were smaller, we had the same skin condition that Caitlyn has now, and by washing us with the salty tea water, our skin improved. I’m not really one to believe in old wives’ tales, but I suppose I have nothing to lose.

To make myself feel better about Caitlyn’s fussy behavior, I tell myself that she behaves this way because of the eczema. If she didn’t have it, then we would have a perfectly content, happy baby. This may or may not be true, but I can cling on to that hope, or at least until her skin clears up and she’s still as fussy as ever. Then I’ll really be at my wits end over what to do.

Along with her skin condition, Caitlyn’s sleeping pattern hasn’t gotten much better either. A baby her age should average roughly 15-16 hours of sleep a day. Caitlyn gets about 11.5 hours. To help combat this, I finally broke down and started using a pacifier. I really didn’t want to, because I fear that the baby and I may begin depending on it too much and that it’ll become a crutch later on.

But I can see why everybody loves pacifiers. It really does make the baby stop crying and fussing! Stick it in their mouth and the baby is immediately calmed down. Magic! Just like my 5 S’s. I’m in love with this thing.

Instead of waiting for Caitlyn to fall asleep in our arms and then putting her into her crib, we can now put her in her crib while awake, give her a pacifier, and watch her go to sleep by herself.

But like with anything that’s too good to be true, the pacifier usually falls out of her mouth as she begins to doze off. She starts crying, and we’re sent running the room to put it back in. Doing this 10-15 times in a row is just about as fun as rocking and holding the baby for an hour in my arms. If there were only some way to strap it in, then I think we’d have the perfect baby calming product.

I’ve also started using the baby carrier to carry Caitlyn around in. A few minutes of walking back and forth doing my usual chores, and the rocking motions usually put her to sleep. I’m OK with having her sleep in it while I carry her around for 30-60 minutes, but when you’re trying to get a baby to take a 3 hour nap, it just isn’t really ideal.

I quickly realized that the baby carrier wasn’t the best thing to use if the end goal is to try to get the baby back into her crib. All the straps and buckles make it difficult to remove her and I usually ended up compromising by putting her on the bed with the carrier still on.

All of these various problems that we’ve been struggling with have gotten Jessie worried about handling the baby on her own when I go back to work in a week. She doesn’t think she’ll be able to take care of Caitlyn by herself.

I’m going to have to agree with her on this. Our fussy baby really does require two pairs of hands. Especially if you don’t know what you’re doing. She’s already started talking about giving Caitlyn over to a nanny. I don’t tell her “no,” but at the same time, I tell her not to give up so quickly.

If our moms could raise 6 children between the both of them with little to no help, then surely we can manage one! But of course, that’s easy for me to say because I’ll be happily at work while she’s the one stuck at home with Chili Pepper.