Ryan wins...unfortunately

We just got word from the doctor that Ryan's last blood test came back showing everything's just fine. No celiac disease...which is great. The doctor also said that he's never heard of a baby refusing to drink for so long. (Not a record you want your child to hold.) Today is day 7...and Ryan's only had a few ounces total since last Friday night because he's mostly pushed away every cup and bottle we've offered.

Soo...bottom line is, Ryan wins. Dr. Steele wants him to have milk, so looks like I'm back to breastfeeding - for now, at least. Sigh.....

Test results

The results of Ryan's blood tests came back and he's.....stubborn. Everything looked just fine, so the doctor says we should just stuff him full of solids as often as he wants to eat, and to offer milk afterwards. He swears that if Ryan's thirsty, he'll drink, and he said again that the tests showed no signs of dehydration. Maybe Ryan's excessive drooling is keeping him hydrated...who knows.

When speaking about Ryan's stubborn nature, Dr. Steele also said, "just wait until he's a teenager." Holy cow...I don't want to think about that.

We still have one more test for which we won't see results until late this week or early next, and it's a screening for Celiac Disease (a gluten intolerance that affects the intestines and hurts their ability to absorb vitamins and nutrients from your food). We're really hopeful that this isn't the case, and Dr. Steele doesn't think that's it, but we're screening for it just in case.

Until those results are in, we're just feeding Ryan as much as he wants when he wants it. Yogurt, cheese and small pieces of finger-sized fruit and veggies are in his very near future. Pictures and video are sure to follow. :)

Update

It's been an eventful last week or two. We're trying to wean Ryan off of nursing, and he's one seriously stubborn little fellow. We did a week of trying to switch one feeding to a bottle or cup, and the gradual approach didn't work, so we tried (with the pediatrician's approval) going cold turkey this past weekend.

Ryan's last nursing session was Friday night, and it took until yesterday afternoon for him to willingly take a cup with milk. (After 3 full days of trying every bottle, nipple, straw, open cup and sippy cup known to man.) He's still not drinking much, but he's at least drinking something.

Since it took him so long to accept a cup, Dr. Steele asked to see him, so we went in this morning. The good news is, Dr. Steele says Ryan looks really healthy and there are no visible indications that he's lacking in nutrition or liquid. The interesting news is that Ryan has lost weight, rather than gained, since our last visit a few weeks ago. Dr. Steele said any weight loss from the past 4 days of little to no milk intake would be negligible, so we're running some tests to eliminate a few other things. (Which means that Ryan got his blood drawn today too -- from a vein in his arm, just like an adult - crazy!)

Ryan's happy, babbling and scooting all over the place, so we're not worried. We'll just feel better once the tests come back and we have a reason for why Ryan's not putting on the pounds like he should be.

In the meantime, he ate 3.5 containers of stage 2 baby food for lunch today, so his appetite is really growing. :) I'll post again once we have another update from the doctor. Love to all of you!

The Hairy Elephant

While I've trimmed Ryan's hair many times at home, it was getting a little crazy and long and I was beginning to doubt my hair-cutting abilities. Home trims are usually performed with baby safety scissors while Ryan rolls around on the floor...let's just say the look hasn't been too "polished" to date.

Today, Ryan received his first professional haircut at the Hairy Elephant, a salon near our house that caters completely to kids. Jessica, our stylist, was great with Ryan, and cut his hair in just a few minutes, so he barely had time to get upset. He was fascinated with a Baby Einstein video they put in for him and his ability to drive a yellow race car while getting the cut.

He lost some of his baby face in the process, but the cut was definitely needed. This is Ryan pre-haircut in his awesome race car seat -- he immediately knew what to do with the steering wheel, which pleased daddy quite a bit.


Here's Ryan in the midst of the cut.



Here's Ryan and daddy outside of the salon post-haircut.



Here's a close up of the finished product. :)

And, last but not least, here's a bonus shot of how cute Ryan was in the bath this morning -- the awesome duck tub is borrowed from cousin Haedyn, and Ryan loves it!

The toothy grin

As promised, here's a follow up post from a few weeks back -- Ryan's chomping on his new pearly whites like it's his job these days. Enjoy!

Cousins!

This past weekend, Ryan got to hang out with all of his local cousins. He swam in his pool with Haedyn, shared toys with Autumn and laughed at Tyler and Conner. We even got our first shot of all four St. Louis Trammell kids -- and I learned the hard way that it's nearly impossible to get a shot where all of them are looking at the camera, much less smiling. Enjoy a few shots below!


Cousin Haedyn enjoying the cozy coupe:


Haedyn loved our swing!

Autumn loved sucking on Ryan's fingers (and toes) - thankfully, Ryan didn't mind at all!

Ryan and Tyler - so darn precious!

While this isn't the perfect shot, I think the personality of each is coming through - from left to right, this is Conner, Autumn, Tyler and Ryan.

Ryan's first road trip

This past weekend we took our first road trip with Ryan to Columbus, Ohio to visit grandma and papa. Ryan didn't enjoy the 8-hour car rides too much, but in the scheme of things, he did pretty well. We had a fun weekend of going for walks, eating out, shopping and of course, lots of play time.

Ryan hit a few milestones within minutes of arriving in Columbus. Once he hit the floor for some much-needed stretching and rolling, he sat himself up on his own, as well as got up on all fours and rocked a bit - crazy! Either being cooped up for 8 hours in the car will do that to you, or he was showing off for grandma and papa. Whichever it was, it was so fun to watch and to have an audience to clap and cheer for his achievements. Enjoy a few photos below of Ryan's fun!

This is Ryan's favorite new pose, which he strikes while trying to leverage his own clothing to help pull himself into a sitting position.

Ryan checking out his new buddy, papa.

We had beautiful weather in Ohio and spent a lot of time on the deck. Here's Ryan with grandma.

Ryan liked to read with papa, whether it was the newspaper or a story book.

Ryan even got a souvenier from his visit -- an adorable turtle puppet he found shopping with grandma.

All in all, Ryan (and mommy and daddy, too) had a great time.